What Should Have Been
by AreWeGonnaHaveAProblem
Summary: What if Ben Solo had never been turned to the darkness? What if he had stayed where he belonged with his mother, helping her lead the Resistance against the First Order. His Uncle Luke has gone into hiding. However, now Leia needs her brother, and Rey and Ben need a teacher. Formerly: "The World as it Should Have Been"
1. The Tall Man with Dark Hair

**AN:**

 **Yes, I am trash. You do not need to tell me. I'm sorry to my Zelda people, but I am on a** ** _Star Wars_** **kick right now and need to vent. This will last a while, I need** ** _The Last Jedi_** **to come out.**

 **Also, if Rey has any Skywalker blood…well, I'll see y'all in Hell.**

 **I am not Disney or Lucasfilm.**

 **I am a sad college student waiting for December.**

 **Ben**

"Without the Jedi, there can be no balance in the Force." The old man tells me before realizing what he just implied. "I am sorry."

"This will begin to make things right. The General has been searching for this for far too long."

"General? To me, she is royalty, as are you."

"Alderaan was destroyed before my parents even met. I am far from royalty."

"That does not make Bail and Breha Organa any less your family; your mother still carries their name after all."

"We've got company, Ben." Poe Dameron bursts into the tent, BB8 next to him.

"First order?" I stand, though I do have to slouch to not hit my head on the cloth ceiling.

"Who else would it be?" We storm out of the tent to see First Order ships in the distance.

"You need to go." A hand presses into my back.

"You need to hide," Poe argues.

"Go, they can't get their hands on that." The old man pushes us towards the ship, and we begin running, droid in tow.

"You got any plans for this weekend?"

"I'm not going, Poe."

"Why not?" Poe whines, jumping into the pilot's seat.

"I have responsibilities."

"So do I, but I make time for some fun."

"My mother would kill me."

"You're almost thirty, you're allowed to break a few rules."

"Have you met my mother?"

"Yes, I have, and she is lovely." Suddenly, the entire ship lurches as it gets hit by a blaster from one of the Stormtroopers. "SHIT!"

"We're not going anywhere." They got the compressor.

"You and BB go, I'll distract them."

"We can't leave you."

"Your mother would murder me if you did it. Go! I'll try to escape." Poe runs towards the fight, the idiot. BB8 whines next to me, urging me to follow and do as Poe said. For a second time seems to stop as a Stormtrooper shoots directly at Poe. My instincts take over and I stop the blaster. Fuck. I shouldn't have done that. Everyone present stops and stares at the frozen blaster shot. I slowly turn the direction of the shot to where it won't hit anyone and release it.

"There's a Jedi here! Find them." The chrome-plated trooper orders. Shit. I run, as fast as I can given the shifting sands. BB8 follows closely at my side. Shouting follows behind me. I don't stop, I can't stop. Several blaster bolts are shot at me, I easily change their course, so they hit the sand.

"Stop!" One trooper orders. Not likely.

"By order of Supreme Leader Snoke, you are under arrest." No.

My heart pounds, my headaches, BB8 beeps next to me. Then there's an explosion that knocks the Stormtroopers to the ground. Poe! I Search through the Force, trying to pick up on his signal. He's okay. He's okay. "Come on, BB8."

I sprint, not letting the Stormtroopers have enough time to recuperate and catch up with us.

-oOo-

I don't know how far or how long I run. The Stormtroopers are far gone, probably gave up for now. Thankfully, I am able to tap into the Force to keep me from running out of energy, though I will crash soon enough. Once I release my hold on this energy source, I'll be knocked out for hours. But I have to get home first.

The sun is beginning to rise. It's going to get hot soon, and I need to find shelter. This place is a wasteland, nothing as far as the eye can see. There's no sign of any other settlements or any lifeforms. What am I going to do? "I need a minute."

The droid stops, turns to me, and watches as I sit down. I sit in my meditative stance and search for anything: people, animals, water, anything that isn't sand really. I turn fast, sensing another intelligent being within a hundred feet of me. "Show yourself. I won't hurt you."

Nothing.

I focus in on the signal. "Though, if you do plan on hurting me, I won't have much of a choice."

It's a strange presence, strong in the Force. Something about it is familiar. I round a sand dune and see a person with goggles and some sort of head wrap on next to a ground speeder. "Don't worry. I won't hurt you. My name's Ben. What's your name?"

The small person doesn't reply, just stares at me, holding tightly to a metal staff.

"I understand if you don't trust me. However, I am in need of some help. My ship was destroyed, my partner is missing, and I have to get home."

Not a peep.

"Can you at least point me in the direction of the nearest settlement? I've been searching for hours." We stand in silence, staring at each other.

"You don't look like you crashed." It's a woman, young judging by the softness in her voice.

"I never said that I crashed."

"No, I guess you did not. But if you didn't crash, how was your ship destroyed?"

"Stormtroopers."

"They're here?" She drops closer into a fighting stance.

"Not now, no. I lost them hours ago."

"Why were they hunting you?" She shifts again, pointing one end of her staff at me, ready to attack.

"I have some information that they want, but I can't let them get it."

"What sort of information?"

"You won't tell me your name, yet you expect me to tell you something that important? I have already given you much more information than I should have." I raise an eyebrow. Slowly, the girl backs down, pulls her goggles and headscarf off, and looks me in the eye.

"Rey."


	2. The Strange Girl in the Sand

**AN:**

 **Hello.**

 **I am not the owner of** ** _Star Wars_** **because if I was, Leia Organa would be happy.**

 **Rey**

I don't know why I don't lie to him. I don't know this man, don't even know if Ben is his real name. He doesn't look much like a Ben.

Maybe it's just my curiosity over why the First Order is hunting him down. Maybe I just want to know why he was sitting on the ground and then suddenly shot up like someone had yelled at him.

"Are you with the Resistance?" I ask after a few moments.

"Yes, I am."

"I've never met a Resistance fighter before."

"No, I guess you wouldn't have out here." He looks around the barren, desolate landscape.

"What information do you have?"

"That's still classified."

"I told you my name," I complain.

"And I told you that I'm stranded here and basically completely at your mercy." He points out. "I think that you will have to tell me some more information before we're even."

"And what kind of information would you want?" I raise one eyebrow. Many men on Jakku have tried something like this, tried to make a deal with me, though what they wanted I refused to trade.

"Why are you here?"

"I live here."

"No, why are you _here_? Why were you lurking behind this sand dune?"

"You were acting strangely, I was curious."

"Are you alone?"

"Does it matter?"

"I'm curious." He smirks. It's starting to get hotter. The sun says that it's around ten o'clock, and this man isn't going to last long out here.

"You need to find shelter."

"Where is that?" He looks around, motioning to the endless nothing. I shouldn't do this. I know that I shouldn't, but I can't _not_ do this. Something feels like I should.

"Come with me, I'll take you somewhere safe."

I jump up on my speeder and pat the spot behind me. "Will I fit? And what about BB8?"

Oh yeah, the droid. How did I forget about that? "Here, put them in here." I motion towards the bag on the side of the speeder. He leans over and picks up the droid like it weighs nothing. "How are you…?"

"I'm strong." Not that strong.

"You're a strange person."

"So are you." He throws one leg over the seat. We barely fit, he's pressed firmly against my back. I shake my head to clear it.

"Hang on." He grabs to my waist quickly as we jolt forwards. The droid squeals from the bag. I hear him swear to himself.

 **Ben**

Why am I following her?

Where is she taking me?

Why is any of this happening?

I don't know.

I hate it, but right now this girl is the only reason that I'm going to survive.

I can't call out to the Resistance with the First Order so close by, they'd track me down in a millisecond. I'm only allowed to use the bare minimum of Force abilities right now, and those can only be in life or death situations, so calling out to mom isn't an option.

They have to come looking for me at some point, right?

I'm supposed to be getting back there with Poe and the map soon. Yeah, they'll come looking for me…and I'll be nowhere near where they'll be looking.

Oh, fuck, Poe. I can't…I can't sense him. He's off the planet. That's it. He's off the planet, definitely not…He's off the planet.

We slow as we reach an AT-AT lying on its side. "Wow."

"This is it." She stops the speeder and I hop off before offering her a hand. She ignores it, jumps off the other side, and I am left looking like a fool. Okay, gotta move on. My arms are beginning to grow tired as I lift BB8 out of the net bag on the side of her speeder.

"Do you live here?"

"Yes, it isn't much, but it's home." I follow her to an opening in the AT-AT and start to look around her "home". "Look, you can stay here until it's dark, but I still need to go work in order to get food, so I will be back."

"I have rations." I pull the bag off my back that I grabbed from the ship before BB8 and I ran. "You can have them if you want."

"What?"

"The rations, I have enough to last a week for two grown men." I start pulling the various boxes and packets out as well as several bottles of water.

"What do you want?" I turn, startled by her question. Her hazel eyes are wide as she stares at the food.

"I don't want anything." I shake my head. "You're saving my life, the least I can do is make yours more comfortable."

"You're certain that you don't want anything in return for all this?"

"Yes, I'm sure." I leave a few rations in my bag; I have to survive long enough to get off of this rock. "I guess most out here don't do many things because it's nice?"

"No, no one. I've been scavenging parts since I was a child just to survive." She starts going through the rations, looking at them with slight confusion. "I don't remember ever seeing this much food in one place." It's only rations.

"You could come with me." What? Why did I say that?

"What?"

"Come back to the Resistance with me. There's plenty of food, people, jobs that aren't scavenging." Her hands still holding a bottle of water.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"My family is coming to get me. If I leave for any amount of time, I might miss them."

"How long have you been waiting?" How long have you been stuck here?

"Thirteen years, I think." Thirteen?

"Rey…I…" They're not coming back at this point, Rey. They're either dead or never intended to come back for you.

"I know what you want to say, but they are coming for me, they've got to." BB8 accidentally rolls into a table, knocking over a practically dead plant. Rey almost knocks me over trying to get to the plant. She quickly picks it up, places the small amount of dirt that fell out back in before grabbing one of the water bottles I gave her to water it. BB8 beeps out an apology.

"BB8 apologizes, they didn't mean to run into the table."

"I know what it said."

"You speak Binary?"

"I speak a lot of languages." Interesting.

"How many of them can you write?" She stalls from her plant care and hunches over some.

"None." I barely hear it.

"Can you read any of them?"

"A little." She squeaks. "I was extremely young when I got here, and no one thought that it was important to teach me."

"I can only speak three languages and one of them is Wookie if that makes you feel any better."

"Can you write Wookie?"

"There is no written language for Wookies, they rely on Basic for their documentation." Uncle Chewie made sure that I could speak fluent Wookie by the time I was twelve. "The other languages are Binary and Basic."

"I figured that out, actually." She smiles. It's a pretty smile, kind considering everything that it's been through. "Why do you speak Wookie?"

"My Dad's best friend is a Wookie. He's basically my Uncle."

"Does in come in much use in the Resistance?"

"No, but my friend, Poe, realized that if you stand in a room that creates a lot of echo and say something in Wookie, you scare the crap out of everyone." And have twenty blasters pointed at you very quickly.

"How did he learn this?"

"He asked me how to say something in Wookie, thought it sounded scary, and wanted to scare the crap out of everyone."

"Your friend sounds like an idiot."

"He often is." Like when he ran into a battle yesterday.

"Alright, we need a plan for getting you back home. We can go to Niima Outpost tomorrow first thing in the morning and see if we can find you some form of transport."

"Tomorrow?"

"It's too hot for you to go out right now, and by the time we got to Niima after it cooled down, everyone would have left."

"Thank you, Rey."


	3. The Man with the Brown Leather Jacket

**AN:**

 **Hi. I am not the owner of** ** _Star Wars_** **. Also, yes Finn is still going to be the one to save Poe. Also, I have not read** ** _Bloodlines_** **or any of the novelizations. I have some passing knowledge on them, but not a ton.**

 **Rey**

We ended up making him a cot on the ground on the opposite side of the AT-AT out of some spare blankets I had. He didn't complain, didn't really say anything as I handed him the blankets. He chose where he slept; I just gave him the materials necessary.

After all of that opening up to one another, things became very awkward. We barely know each other, yet we know so much. I know about his Wookie Uncle, yet I don't know his last name or if he even has one. He knows that I can't read or write, but hasn't even bothered to ask my age.

It's strange, to say the least.

But it doesn't really matter.

We're currently on our way to the Niima Outpost to help him and BB8 get transportation home.

"Stop!" He cries in my ear.

"What? What is it?"

"It can't be." He jumps off the speeder and walks towards that Hunk of Garbage ship Unkar stole.

"What does it matter? That ship's garbage."

"Be happy that I'm not my father." What?

"Did your father have a ship like this?"

"Not like it, no. He had this one." He's crouched down by the landing gear, looking at something. "I made this blaster hole here when I was thirteen, my Dad's friend decided that I was old enough to learn to shoot a blaster. Though he did give me strict orders to not let my mother know."

"Was your aim that bad?"

"The first few shots it was. I can shoot straight in almost any situation now." He sighs. "Who owns it?"

"Unkar Plutt, he runs this place."

"I can't leave this ship here."

"Credits are worthless here."

"You'll find that I can be very persuasive when necessary." No one is that persuasive.

"Hey! Get away from my ship!" Unkar Plutt comes "jogging" over to us.

"Unkar Plutt, I presume." Ben stands straight. He holds his right wrist in his left hand with his feet spread shoulder-width apart. He looks rather…dignified, which is not something that you ever see on this planet.

"And who are you?"

"My name is Ben. I would like to purchase this ship."

"Not happening." Unkar crosses his arms.

"You will allow me to purchase this ship." Ben waves a hand in front of Unkar's face.

"I will allow you to purchase this ship."

"You will take the ten thousand credits I offer."

"I will take the ten thousand credits you offer." What is going on?

"You will take this and then be on your way."

"I will take this and then be on my way." Unkar takes the credits from Ben's hand and leaves.

"What was that?" I gape at him.

"I told you, I can be incredibly persuasive."

"That wasn't just persuasion, it was like you were controlling him."

"It doesn't matter now." He shakes his head.

"If you could do that, why even give him the money?"

"I don't like doing it, I feel bad, so I try to make it fair. Besides, this thing is monetarily not worth that much." He looks around. "You can still come with me if you want."

"I have to stay."

"I understand. Waiting for someone you love is never easy." I break eye contact with him. What does he know about waiting? "Would you mind showing me around the Outpost, I still have some time to kill seeing if my partner can make it."

"How will they know to find you here?"

"Once he's ready, he can send me a message on my commlink."

"Oh." I look back at the disgusting Outpost, I don't want to show him. That place is disgusting. Whoever Ben is, it's someone much higher than this lowly place and its lowly people. "Are you sure?"

"Unless you have something else that you need to be doing."

"No, it's not that…"

"Then what is it?" He takes a few steps closer to me.

"You're dressed like an off-worlder and have an expensive-looking droid. They'll rip you apart."

"Believe it or not, I can take care of myself." He pats his belt where a blaster and a silver cylinder are clasped.

"Don't say that I didn't warn you." We walk in silence to the Outpost, except for the occasional blip from BB8. "Stay close."

Suddenly, BB8 starts beeping loudly about a man in a jacket.

"What? Where?" Ben asks. A small metal thing protrudes from the droid's round body and points at a man wearing all black except for a brown leather jacket. "Hey! Man in the brown jacket!"

The man bolts. He starts running as fast and as far as he can, but he's no match for Ben. I don't know how Ben moved as fast as he did, but one moment he was next to me, and the next he had that man tackled to the ground. "I didn't do anything!"

"Where did you get that jacket?"

"What?"

"Where did you get that jacket?" Ben asks again through gritted teeth.

"I got it out of wreckage from a ship a friend and I crashed in."

"Where is he?"

"The ship sunk into the sands and then exploded. He's dead. I'm sorry if you knew him. It was Poe, right?"

"Yes, it was Poe." Ben drags himself off of the man and sits on the ground, face in his hands. BB8 rolls over next to him and places his head, I guess, on Ben's shoulder.

"I'm sorry," I whisper.

"I guess that I better get going, then." He slowly eases his way to a standing position. "Wait a second, who are you?"

"My name's Finn."

"Are you also with the Resistance?" I perk up a little.

"Um, yes. I am."

"No, you're not." Ben shakes his head. What?

"The Resistance is large; how would you know?"

"If you were with the Resistance, you would recognize me." What? Is he that big a deal in the Resistance? "Why lie?" He doesn't answer. "Fine, then tell me, where were you and Poe coming from?"

"I helped him escape the First Order aboard a tie-fighter. He piloted and demanded that we come back here for a man and a droid. I assume he was talking about you. We got hit and the next thing I knew, I was lying on the sand a hundred yards from the wreckage."

"What are you planning on doing now?" I ask.

"Get as far away from the First Order as possible."

"I've got a ship. If you tell me the truth, I'll take you with me."

"Really?" Finn perks up.

"Really."

"I was a Trooper, and I deserted. During my first battle, I made a decision; I decided that I wasn't going to kill for them. I couldn't do it."

"That was brave," Ben admits.

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

A screeching sound echoes over the Outpost as two tie-fighters fly in from above. People scream as they rain blaster shots down on us.

"To the Falcon!" Ben yells, grabbing my hand and dragging me towards the freighter he just bought. "Come on, Finn."

I rip my hand out of Ben's and run as fast as I can. Shots hit the sand around us. Kriff! Finn's voice rings clearly from behind us. "We need a pilot!"

"We've got one!" Ben yells.

"Two." I correct. "Need a copilot?"

"Yes." We make it to the loading ramp and pile in. "Finn, go down this hallway and down, you'll find the guns. Rey, come with me. BB8, secure yourself."

Ben hits a button on the wall and the ramp closes. Several wires shoot out from BB8 and latch to surfaces, hanging BB8 in the air. I almost gape at the small droid, but Ben is dragging me to the cockpit. "Unkar Plutt installed a compressor on the Hyperdrive and a primer on the fuel tank."

"That complicates things." He starts flipping switches and the ship comes to life.


	4. The Best Pilot in the Resistance

**AN:**

 **Hi guys. I am still not the owner of** ** _Star Wars_** **.**

 **Ben**

It's been a long time since I was in the Falcon, let alone flew it. I don't think I've flown it since I was taught. Having a copilot inexperienced with the ship certainly doesn't help. "What's the plan?"

"We fly low, it confuses their tracking. Once we get rid of those fighters, we're leaving the atmosphere and going to the Ileenium system. Once we arrive there, we can get you transportation back here." Tie shots ring around us as I try to avoid the sand dunes and wreckage from the fight between the Empire and Rebellion.

"Ileenium System?" She gapes.

"We've got a problem!" Finn yells at us.

"What now?" Shit.

"The gun is stuck in the forward position."

"Climb up, there's two guns." I make a sharp turn and BB8 whines.

"We need cover," Rey says. "Look, there."

I follow her finger to a downed Star Destroyer. "No."

"We need cover."

"There's no confirmation of making it out of there."

"We can't keep going like this."

"You'd be surprised what this ship is capable of." A feeling hits me in the chest. I sense someone.

Someone, I thought dead.

Poe! "Change of plans, we have another person to pick up."

"What?"

"Poe's alive." He's in the stupid Star Destroyer.

"How do you know?"

"Doesn't matter." Please don't push it.

"When we get out of this, you're going to answer all of my questions."

"Fine, but you got what you want, we're going in. Take control, I have to do something."

"How are we going to pick him up if we're still being chased by those fighters?"

"It may take a few passes, but we'll do it." It won't take a few passes. "Be careful, don't go too fast."

"That's easy." I can practically hear her eyes roll.

"I'll get Poe; you keep us alive." I go to the ramp and grab a rope. "Finn, there's going to be a man in the Star Destroyer, whatever you do, don't hurt him."

"What?"

"Don't hurt the man in the Star Destroyer, or you'll have Hell to pay." I tie one end of the rope around my waist and another end to the table. This should hold us. "Ramp opening!"

"What?" Finn and Rey yell at the same time. Ignoring them, I open the ramp and walk out.

"Poe!" My call echoes through the abandoned ship.

"Ben?"

"I'm coming." Giving the rope another tug, I jump out of the Falcon. I see him. I also hear him as he swears at me. Rey's going slow enough for me to grab Poe and pull him along with us. I'm sure under any other circumstances, this would look hilarious. Two people hanging out of a moving ship by a rope. However, there are still Tie-Fighters.

"You're crazy." Poe shakes his head.

"Hold on!" I yell and stick out a hand. I pull the Falcon towards myself, or rather pull myself towards the Falcon and end up hanging from the ramp. "Finn, get out here!"

The ex-stormtrooper runs out and pulls Poe up first, then myself. My chest heaves, and Poe looks ready to pass out. I shakily stand and hit the button to close the ramp. "You're insane."

"And you're alive because of it." I remind him. "Finn, we need you back at the guns. Poe, strap yourself in."

"Ben!" Rey yells.

"And who's that?" Poe heaves.

"I'll explain when we're safe," I promise before going back to the cockpit.

"You are the craziest man I have ever met, and there was a man on Jakku once who kept declaring himself to be the reincarnation of Luke Skywalker."

"Can't be a reincarnation of someone who isn't dead." I take back my pilot's seat and get us out of the Star Destroyer. Poe cheers Finn on as he shoots down the remaining fighters. "We're leaving the atmosphere!"

"I'm set!" Poe yells back. The Falcon jerks as we leave the planet. "Kriff!"

"We're almost out!" The poor Falcon hasn't gone through anything like this in a while.

-oOo-

Once we're out of Jakku's system, we all calm down. I place the ship on autopilot and we all meet in the galley. I don't trust the hyperdrive right now, I don't know of all the modifications made and would prefer to not be blasted to pieces. Finn is currently speaking very animatedly to the rest of us. "How did you survive? The fighter exploded!"

"I know, I woke up and it was night and you were gone and so was the ship. I managed to find that Star Destroyer and hunkered down in there."

"You're lucky," I mention.

"I assume you broke your mother's rule."

"I can't just shut it off." I wish I could.

"I know, but still you have to be careful." He's right. "I guess we should have some proper introductions. I'm Poe Dameron."

"The best pilot in the Resistance," I add. "I'm Ben Solo, a lieutenant general of the Resistance."

"Lieutenant general?" Finn gapes. "I'm technically FN-2187, Poe has decided to call me Finn."

"Rey, just Rey." Rey stares down at her feet before turning to me. "Solo? And…you keep calling this ship, your father's ship, the Falcon. This isn't the Millennium Falcon, is it?"

"Yes, it is."

"You're the son of Han Solo."

"The War Hero?" Finn asks.

"I am also the son of Princess Leia Skywalker Organa Solo, now General of the Resistance." If they recognized Dad from his time in the Rebellion, than they'll probably recognize Mom from it, too, rather than the Resistance now.

"You're a prince?" Rey gapes at me. "What is a prince doing on missions to Jakku?"

"No. My mother was the princess of Alderaan which was destroyed before I was born by the Death Star. I was on that mission because we were retrieving information vital to my family."

"What information did you get? Or is that still classified?" She crosses her arms.

"A map to my uncle, Luke Skywalker."

"Luke Skywalker? I thought he was a myth." Her arms fall back to her sides.

"No, he is far from a myth. You wanted to know why I can do so many things? Is my blood relation to the last Jedi enough of an answer?"

"So, you're not a Jedi?"

"My uncle went into hiding before my training was complete." The coward.

The ship lurches. I run to the cockpit to see red lights as we're swallowed by another ship. Oh kriff. I run to the galley and start raising the smuggling panels.

"Get in!"

"What's going on?" Poe asks, raising another one.

"We're gonna be boarded." I place BB8 in one of the holes before covering him up.

"Get in, Finn." Poe pulls the other man into the hole with him.

"Watch your heads." I slide the panel over them. Rey has already gotten into a third hole and is waiting for me. I fall in before grabbing the panel and pulling it over our heads. Now we have to wait.


	5. The Man and the Wookie

**AN:**

 **Hello. So, there is a slight change in the last chapter, it isn't much and it's during their introductions to each other in the end.**

 **I am not Lucasfilm.**

 **Ben**

The floor creaks above my head; Rey fidgets next to me. I offer her a smile, not that I can really reassure her right now. She returns my pity-smile for just a moment.

The footsteps stop just above us. Then the panel starts shifting like someone is trying to remove it. Not good.

"Kriff," Rey whispers next to me. I move to cover Rey's body with my own, trying to hide her from our attacker. I know that it won't do much good, but…

Suddenly the panel is removed. Two figures stare down at us, one much taller than the- "Dad?!"

"Ben?" Dad gapes. "What the Hell are you doing in there?"

Uncle Chewie drags me up before crushing me in one of his signature hugs. "We thought that you were the First Order."

"We?" Uncle Chewie finally releases me. Did they not see Rey?

"Poe! Finn! You're safe to come out now." The second smuggling panel shifts and two pairs of brown eyes peek out from under it.

"Oh, Captain Solo." Poe finishes pushing the panel off. I turn back to my hole and offer Rey my hand to help her up while Poe introduces Finn to my father.

"And who is this young lady?" Dad smirks as I pull the panel off of BB8's hole.

"Dad, this is Rey. Rey, this is my father, Han Solo, and his copilot, Chewbacca."

"It's nice to meet you, Rey." Dad, please don't look at me like that. He takes Rey's outstretched hand and shakes it. "And here I was worrying that Ben was gonna-"

"That's not what this is!" I exclaim. Poe snorts next to me.

His face drops from a grin to a genuine look of concern. "So, I should still be worried?"

"No, you should not be worried."

"Yes, you should." Poe laughs. "Your son refuses to do anything but work, it's terrible."

"He takes after his mother in that regard." Dad! "How did you do it, Ben? How did you find her?" He lightly touches the corner of the table.

"Poe and I were on a mission on Jakku. We got separated, and Rey found me, helped me. We then ran into Finn and the First Order attacked. We got the Millenium Falcon at the Niima Outpost. We were able to escape and found Poe. Then we got out here, and you found us."

"Jakku, that junkyard?"

"Thank you! Junkyard!" Finn points at Poe.

"We had to go back and get Ben and BB8," Poe argues. I shake my head before turning back to Dad.

"We need to get back to the Resistance, quickly. We found the map."

"Really?" Dad blinks. "You've found him?"

"Not quite yet, but we're close."

"I'll get you back, I can't stay, but I'll get you back."

"You could stay." Please.

"No, I can't. I have too much to do."

"Stay for a little while this time, please."

"I have three rathtars." What?

"What? How?" Poe gasps.

"It wasn't easy, which is why I have to finish this one."

"And then?"

"Not now, Ben."

"Fine, but we will speak later." I give up.

"Take the Falcon, I'll come pick it up once the rathtars are gone." Take the Falcon?

"Really?" I ask.

"That way, you know that I'm coming back."

"We need some provisions, Jakku wasn't exactly kind in the way of supplies."

"Come on then, all of you. We'll eat, and you can all change and use the fresher."

"Thank you," Finn says.

"Yes, thank you." Rey seems hesitant.

"Chewie'll take you to the freshers, and I'll cook. Trust me, you don't want to eat Wookie food." Uncle Chewie starts to lead us out. BB8 at some point got himself out of his hole and stays close to his master. "Ben, I need to talk to you."

Rey and Finn linger a second, looking at Dad and myself. I nod slightly, promising that they will be safe. I still sense Rey's hesitance to leave, but she does. "What is it?"

"How is your mother?"

"She is healthy, and the Resistance is thriving under her command."

"That's not what I asked, Ben." He scolds.

"She misses you. She doesn't say it, but I know that it still tears her apart that you're never there."

"And how are you?"

"Once Uncle Luke returns and completes my training I will be ready to face him. Right now, I have been limited to using the Force in only life-or-death situations."

"Tell me about the girl."

"I don't have much to tell. All I know is that she has no family on Jakku and lives in an overturned AT-AT. She's been waiting for her family to return to get her for a long time. She wants to go back as soon as possible."

"She seems rather attached to you." A smirk cracks across his face.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure, you don't." His laugh rings clearly through the Falcon in a way I haven't heard since I was small. "Maybe I won't have to worry for too much longer."

"She's determined to go back to Jakku, and I have to help Mom."

"You aren't denying anything, Ben." No, I'm not.

"I barely know her." Arguments form and crumble in my head. Why am I so drawn to her?

"Look, Ben, take it from me: if you like this girl, tell her, you'll be a lot happier in the long run."

"Unlike you, who insulted and fought with Mom for ages before finally admitting that you loved her." I have heard that story too many times.

"And I've almost lost it all too many times. When Vader was freezing me, and I knew that I could die, I had very few regrets. One of them was not getting to spend more time with your mother without fighting."

"And yet you still leave now." Again and again. He always leaves.

"I'm not good at much, son. Smuggling is the one thing that I have always been good at."

"You're a terrible smuggler." I point out. "Which is why you had to be frozen in the first place."

"I've gotten better." He argues. "I was young and dumb. Anyways, Ben, I have always wanted two things for you: for you to be a better man than I ever was and for you to be happy. I believe that the first one has come true, but I don't know about the second. Poe is right, you need friends, you need to surround yourself with people who care about you. It's the only way I've survived this long."

"When the war is over, the First Order is nothing but dust, and the world is rid of Snoke, I will be happy." I begin to walk away from him and this conversation.

"You can't live that way forever, Ben." I stop but don't look at him. "If you don't find a support system, people who make you happy now, what will be the point of making it to the end of the war? You need that motivation. Freeing the galaxy is a noble goal, but it means nothing if you don't have anyone to share that victory with."

I don't have a reply. I can't think of anything. For once in his life, Dad is correct. "We'll be leaving as soon as the Falcon is prepared."

"I'll be home within the month, I promise." Yeah, right.


	6. The Suggestion

**AN:**

 **Hi. I am not Lucasfilm or Disney.**

 **Rey**

Well, now I have met Ben's Wookie Uncle. Chewbacca seems nice enough, and it was hilarious to see six-foot-something Ben basically disappear when the Wookie hugged him. I've met a few Wookies, it's too hot on Jakku for them.

Now the six of us are sitting in a sort of dining hall, eating the food that Han Solo prepared for us. I don't know what half of it is, but I'm too hungry to care. Han sits at the head of the table with Chewbacca at his left and his son at his right. By the time I had finished cleaning up, Poe and Finn had already sat down next to Chewbacca. So, I am sitting next to Ben.

He eventually also cleaned up, after whatever conversation his father wanted to have. Dark, wet locks stick to his head, exposing his larger than average ears. No wonder he wears it long. Poe is currently recounting his time with the First Order, not that I'm paying much attention. Once I'm back on Jakku the war won't matter anymore. I hope.

"And what about you, Rey? How did you get caught up in all of this mess?" Han Solo points his fork at me.

"I started my day as I do every day, going to scavenge parts from the abandoned Star Destroyers. I then saw a droid and a man sitting on the ground who suddenly shot up like someone had yelled at him. I was hidden behind a sand dune, but he still found me. He started asking for directions and such, and I soon realized that he wouldn't survive long on Jakku in the middle of the day, so I took him to shelter. The next day we went to Niima Outpost to find him transportation off, he bought the ship, and the First Order attacked."

"Interesting." Han looks down at his plate. "Ben told me that you're planning on going back to Jakku once this is all said and done."

"That is correct."

"Why? There can't be anything for you there that you can't find somewhere better."

"Dad," Ben warns.

"My family is going to come to get me." My voice is resolute even though my confidence wavers more and more with every passing day.

"Listen, kid, I understand clinging to this idea of your family when you have nothing else. But now, you have another, better option. You need to ask yourself: are they really worth waiting for if they haven't come to get you yet? Are they really your family? Because, how I have always seen it is that family isn't just your blood, it's those who care about you, love you, and support you even when it costs something of their own."

"Dad!" Ben slams his fist onto the table, making Finn jump. "You can stop now."

"Alright, but Rey, I have a suggestion for you. Stay a week with this group, go see the Resistance, see what it's like. You may find that you're a lot happier there and that you can't find yourself to leave them. It's what happened to me, and thanks to my not being able to leave the Rebellion even when I tried, we have Ben here." Han clasps his hand on his son's shoulder.

I eat in silence for a long time after that.

Maybe I could stay.

No, no, I have to go back to Jakku.

But Han's right.

They've left me for thirteen years.

I can't wait forever.

But…what if they come back and I'm not there?

What will they do?

Assume I died?

I can't leave my family.

We could be so happy.

I could be happy.

But then I look over at Poe and Finn, laughing and jovial. I hear Ben correcting Poe's outlandish stories. Chewbacca and Han's laughs ring throughout the room.

I could be happy here, too.

Ben places a small plate with some brown cube shape on it. "What is that?"

"It's called cake, it's sweet." He explains and passes me another fork. That seems wasteful to me, but everyone else is using a second fork, so I guess it's normal. I cut a small piece of the cake off and try it.

Sweet doesn't even begin to describe it. The rest of the group laughs slightly at my expression. I ignore them and devour the cake. They continue with their conversations from before, and Ben slides his untouched piece of cake towards me. "I'm full."

I gape at him, but then a smile cracks across my face. "Thank you."

"It's fine." He shakes his head. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Poe give Ben a thumbs-up which elicits a glare from the not-Jedi. I ignore them and happily eat my cake.

"We're gonna stop by Maz Katana's. If Rey really wants to go back that bad, Maz can help." Han says.

"Thank you."

"I still think that you should take my suggestion, but it's up to you." Han stands and takes the empty plates. "Chewie, show them to the empty quarters."

"We weren't planning on-" Ben starts.

"No, you're all exhausted and clearly need the rest. Your mother would kill me if I sent you home like this."


	7. The Castle

**AN:**

 **Hi. I am not Lucasfilm or Disney. Sadly. I've decided to reply to your comments because I want to hear more from y'all.**

 **Ako: Thanks!**

 **Guest (Chapter 1): Well, most of your questions have been answered by now. Yeah, I want to read** ** _Bloodlines_** **, but I'm in college and only have time to do this right now because I'm on Thanksgiving Break.**

 **LadyRedStar: I know right? You would think that there would be more, but I don't think I've seen another fanfic with him staying good. I've seen plenty of fanart, but not really any fanfics.**

 **Nuincalion Griffondor: Thank you!**

 **waterlilly91: We're going on an adventure!**

 **Aki: Yeah, just wait for a total Solo reunion.**

 **Autohumans: Trust me, it ain't cousin.**

 **Ben**

I don't rest. Not really. I mostly just lie there and reel from the emotions of everyone else in the ship.

Chewbacca is happy. But he always is when Mom, Uncle Luke, or I am around.

Poe feels exhausted. He passed out as soon as he found his bed.

Finn is confused. To be fair I would be, too. He's gone through a lot over the past two days. We all have.

Dad is…Dad. He's always been hard to read. He seems happy, but something is troubling him.

Rey is conflicted. She feels the need to go back to Jakku, but she wants to stay with us.

I want her to stay.

I can't explain it. I just…want to be around her. I want to learn everything about her. I want to make her happy. I want to introduce her to a world where anything is possible and you always have enough to eat. I want her skills to be appreciated. I want…

It's stupid.

I shouldn't want any of this. I barely know this girl, yet…

I barely know her.

She's going to leave me tomorrow to go back to Jakku.

I have to accept this.

-oOo-

"Good morning, Ben," Poe says and tosses me a piece of fruit.

"Morning."

"So, is there anything you've been meaning to talk to me, your best friend, about?"

"No."

"You're a terrible liar, Ben." He laughs. "If you didn't have the Force, you wouldn't've made it this far."

"Good thing I have it, then."

"Now tell me." He balances his elbows on his knees and places his chin in his palms like a child.

"About what?"

"About Rey of course!"

"There isn't anything more to tell." I walk past him, grabbing some water.

"How about why you gave her your cake last night? You love chocolate cake."

"And I've always had enough to eat, she hasn't," I state through clenched teeth.

"Look, Ben. Take it from-"

"Don't you dare, my father had a conversation like this with me yesterday." Please not again.

"And your resistance implies that you need another."

"I'm fine, thank you very much."

"Are you going to be fine when she gets on a transport back to Jakku?" I pause with my back to him.

"I'll be fine. I assure you."

"You're still a terrible liar, Ben."

-oOo-

"Here." I hand Rey a blaster.

"I can take care of myself, thank you."

"Why do you think I'm giving it to you?" I wouldn't trust you with a literal death machine if I thought that you couldn't handle it. She slowly takes the blaster out of my hand, and our fingers brush against each other'ss. I suck in a breath but don't let go quite yet. "The safety is here, you have to release it before you can shoot. If you aren't shooting, please keep the safety on. The last thing we need is someone getting shot by accident in this place."

"Where exactly are we going?"

"A place run by an old friend. Her name is Max Katana. She can help anyone with anything. Though I must warn you, she can see straight through you. There are no secrets from Maz, no matter how deeply you bury them."

"Did you learn that the hard way?"

"Yes, I did." I realize that we're both still holding to the blaster and quickly release it.

"So, what's your advice."

"Don't give her any reason to reveal your secrets."

"Come on you two!" Poe calls.

"We'll get you some provisions at Maz's."

"Ben."

"Yes?" I turn back to her.

"I'm…I'm going to take your father's advice."

"What?"

"I'm going to stay with you…" Her cheeks redden" and Poe and Finn for a little while, see how it is." The second half of her sentence is said quite a bit faster than the first.

"Really?" I feel the smile start to spread across my face. My ears begin heating up.

"Really."

"Good, good." I lead her out with a smile on my face. She's going to stay. Maybe Mom can convince her to stay permanently, she's really good at that sort of thing when it comes to recruits.

"Whatever you do, don't stare," Dad tells Finn when we enter.

"At what?" Finn asks, confused.

"Any of it."

Finn, Poe, Dad, Rey, and I all board the shuttle to the planet, leaving BB8 and Chewbacca on the freighter. The map is safe with BB8, and at least one crewmember needs to be on the freighter at all times. The trip is fast, and we're able to land pretty close to the "watering hole".

"Han Solo!" Maz yells as soon as we enter.

"Hi, Maz!" Dad calls back. The small alien walks over to us and looks each of us over.

"Where is my boyfriend?"

"Back on the freighter, one of us has to stay."

"I like that Wookie," Maz informs us. "And Ben, how are you?"

"I'm fine, Maz."

"Have you somehow gotten taller? How much more can you grow?"

"I'm sure I'm done now. I promise." Maz was always very annoyed with my height, and how quickly I became the second tallest person in my family including the Wookie.

"And you have brought friends." She looks at the three non-Solos. "Come."

We follow her through the bar, I hear several hushed whispers. "We were wondering about a transport to Jakku."

"Actually, I've decided to stay, for a little while at least," Rey informs Dad.

"Really? Good."

"Then is there anything else you need?" Maz asks.

"I guess not. Some supplies might be nice, these four and a droid are going back to the Resistance today."

"Only these four?" Maz asks.

"Yes, I have a job to do."

"You have to go back, Han."

"I know, and I will once I finish this job." He's lying, he always says that.

"Hm." Maz crosses her arms. "Come with me, we'll eat lunch."

Lunch was uneventful for the most part. Maz over-analyzed Finn, saying that he just wanted to run. Rey and Poe got upset with him for that. We were starting to walk out when she stopped. "What's wrong?"

"Do you hear that?" I hear a child crying out.

"What is that?"

"I don't know." We walk towards a door and down a set of stairs. We follow the cries until we reach a dead end. "What?"

Suddenly a door slides open behind us. Rey and I look at each other before walking inside. The cries get louder as we approach a wooden box. We both kneel down and open it. "Wait a second…"

"What is it?"

"This lightsaber…it…it can't be."

"Whose is it?"

"My grandfather's, and my uncle's." I start to reach out but stop. "We were the only two who heard the crying?"

"So? It was coming from this thing."

"We need to grab onto it at the same time."

"Why?"

"It was meant for the two of us to find together." She looks at me funny again but reaches her hand out just above the lightsaber. "On three."

"One." I breathe.

"Two." Her voice is slightly shaky as she counts with me.

"Three."

Our hands grab the lightsaber in unison and everything goes black.


	8. The Vision

**AN:**

 **Hi everyone. I am not the owner of** ** _Star Wars_** **.**

 **Guest (Chapter 7): Don't worry, they'll get some more interaction once they get back to the Resistance and Ben is off doing Resistance stuff. I like banter, I'm pretty good at banter.**

 **Rey**

My hand touches the lightsaber, and everything goes black.

 _A black metal hallway begins to light up around us. A young boy no older than six stands at one end, a large form looming above him. I know this boy. Next to me, Ben is trembling. This boy is the man next to me._

 _The hallway starts to collapse, and Ben and I run in the opposite direction only to fall into the sands of Jakku. My screams for my parents to return deafen me and Ben quickly helps me back up. "We have to keep moving."_

 _It goes dark again, and a deep, labored breathing fills the air. Ben holds tightly to my hand, keeping us in motion. Suddenly we're surrounded by flames, the only other beings are a man and an old R-2 unit. A metallic hand reaches for the droid and we're pulled to the next place._

 _I see…us. Ben and I locked in battle with lightsabers. What? I... what? His green cross-guard lightsaber strikes my blue one, and my sight is engulfed in a white light._

 _"Stay here. I'll come back for you. I'll come back sweetheart, I promise." An unknown voice promises. I know that voice, but it's distant and filled with emotion leaving me unable to identify it. But I do know that I don't want them to leave._

 _"Wait! Come back!" I yell. Wait, Ben's hand is gone. "Ben?"_

 _"Rey?" Another voice, decidedly not Ben's states._

 _"Ben?" I yell before being pulled into another place._

 _I'm in the rain, a large group of people stands in front of me, all masked. I feel like they're staring straight through me. A flash of lightning strikes near us and I'm transported._

 _I stand in a green valley, surrounded by nature in all its glory. Ben returns to my side and quickly grabs my hand. A large group of people watches as three figures face off in a lightsaber duel. Only one of their faces is visible to me. A young woman wearing gray around my age with a purple lightsaber faces off against a male and female with graying hair. The graying male has a purple lightsaber with crossguards like Ben's was. The older woman's purple lightsaber has two blades, making it about as tall as her._

 _"Good, Leia." A male voice praises after "Leia" pushes him back several feet._

 _Leia? Ben's mother? I thought that she wasn't a Jedi._

 _The group watching claps and the sound is almost deafening. Another bright light fills my vision and I am deposited back in Maz Katana's basement._

 _"These are your first steps."_ What?

My chest heaves as I try to ground myself. At some point during all of that, I fell to the ground. Ben sits next to me, his head in his hands. "What was that?"

"A Force vision," He explains.

"A what?"

"A Force vision. They show you what you need to know: past, present, future, things that one could avoid, things that we should ensure happen."

"Why were we separated?"

"Evidently we needed to see different things." He runs his fingers through his long hair, trying to ground himself.

"What did you see?"

"The contents of Force visions are not meant to be shared, lest the future be changed."

"So, I just have to sit here and think about it without telling anyone?"

"Basically. What you saw was meant only for you."

"What about what we saw together?"

"That we can discuss."

"Who was that thing in the beginning? The thing looming over the boy?" I know who the boy was, but that thing…

"Snoke. The Supreme Leader of the First Order, it was him."

"What was he doing?"

"Trying to corrupt me. He's targeted me since I was born, trying to get me to join him so that he can use my abilities. You wonder why I can only use the force for life-or-death situations right now? Why my uncle abandoned me without completing my training? Because we're afraid. We're afraid that if I become a Jedi, Snoke will be able to use me completely. If all of my powers were unlocked…were I to be turned, I would be unstoppable."

"Yet, you still want to find him and complete your training?"

"Snoke is strong in the Darkside of the Force. No regular person can defeat him. I know that Uncle Luke won't find him; he's defeated his Dark Lord. To an extent it's my turn, and I can't defeat him without completing my training."

We sit in silence for what feels like forever.

"Your parents just left you with Unkar Plutt at six years old?"

"Yes."

"Rey…I'm sorry, but…they're not coming back. They're either dead or never meant to get you in the first place." A rage starts to form within me, but I'm too tired and confused to let it do anything.

"What was going on in the fire, has that already happened or will it happen in the future?"

"That, was the destruction of the Jedi Academy Uncle Luke had built. The First Order attacked, trying to capture me and kill all hope for the Jedi. Many of the padawans didn't make it." And there goes my hope of avoiding that one. "That was just before Uncle Luke dropped me off with my mom and left."

"We're going to fight at some point." I'm going to have a lightsaber at some point.

"Apparently."

"Was your mother ever trained to be a Jedi at all?" Maybe she was trained some, but never became a Jedi for some reason.

"No, no."

"Then that girl…who was she?"

"I have no idea. Besides, Leia isn't an uncommon name since the Empire was defeated." He admits. "They were all wearing gray, Jedi don't wear gray. Jedi where light colors or brown, never gray. Sith, Darksiders, they wear black."

"And the purple lightsabers?"

"It seems to me that that was a legion of Gray Force Users. A perfect balance between the light and the dark."

"The man had a lightsaber like yours."

"I don't know about that. I think…I think we're meant to find these Gray Force Users."

Maz Katana bursts through the door. "Are you alright?"

"Just a Force vision, Maz." Ben assures her.

"A shared one?"

"Yes."

"You know what this means, Ben?" Well I don't.

"Yes, I do." What does it mean?

"Where did you get this?" Ben picks up the lightsaber again, thankfully not going into another vision.

"A good question for another time."

"No, it's a good question for now. This was supposed to be lost with Uncle Luke's hand in cloud City." What?

"With his hand?"

"Long story."

"Ben! Rey!" Han jogs in with Finn and Poe close behind.

"We're fine, just some Force stuff."

"Is that?" Han asks, staring at the lightsaber in his son's hand.

"Yes, it is."

"Look, we gotta get out of here. The First Order has been alerted that the fugitives they're searching for are here." Poe says. "They'll be here any minute." Kriff.

Ben hands me his uncle's lightsaber. "Looks like you might need this."

"What?"

"Just take it, I have mine." We stand and follow Han outside.


	9. The General

**AN:**

 **Hi, not the owner of** ** _Star Wars._**

 **PrincessOfJakku: Thanks!**

 **LadyRedStar: Don't worry, it'll happen soon enough.**

 **Ben**

Of course, there would be First Order sympathizers here.

Of course, there are.

Nothing can be easy. "Where are we going?"

"The shuttle, hopefully, we can get off this planet before they arrive," Dad replies.

"I doubt it." Finn states.

"Well, we can still try." Suddenly, a pain hits me in the chest, like I've been shot. I fall to my knees and everyone stops. "What's wrong?"

"I…I feel like…millions of voices just cried out in terror and suddenly were silenced." Dad looks strangely at me while everyone else just looks horrified.

"Starkiller," Finn explains. "They've fired it. That thing could destroy an entire system."

"An entire system?" I breathe, still grasping to my chest.

"Ben, we've gotta go." Rey urges, pulling at my arm. "If we stay any longer, we'll be joining them."

I let her pull me to my feet and drag after them. My head is still reeling, and I feel like I may be sick. When we get outside we see that ships full of Stormtroopers have already entered the atmosphere. "Kriff."

We all bolt towards our shuttle, only to have it shot by fighters accompanying the shuttles of Stormtroopers. The ship explodes and we're all knocked off our feet. There goes that plan. Dad pulls out his commlink and calls for Uncle Chewie as we run for shelter. "Chewie, we've got company! Hide the droid, they can't get it. We'll try to find a way back, but the Shuttle got hit. Be careful."

Uncle Chewie roars out a reply, and the commlink goes silent.

"Everyone, stay together." We all stand by a wall forming a semicircle around weaponless Maz.

"Remember to turn off the safety," I whisper to Rey. She apparently needed that reminder because she pulls the blaster back to her and starts fiddling with it. The Shuttles land all around us and Stormtroopers come pouring out. What I would give for Uncle Chewie's bowcaster right now. I mow down every Stormtrooper I can, trying to stop them before they can ready their own weapons.

"Those beasts," Maz whispers behind me.

Shot after shot, I hit every mark. Rey is doing pretty well considering she's never shot a blaster before, but it's hard to tell who's hitting what when there are so many shots going off. Someone behind me yells. Poe got shot in the arm. Finn makes quick work of the man who shot our friend.

My Resistance commlink starts beeping on my belt. "This is General Organa. Lieutenant General Solo, can you hear me? Ben, where are you?"

"This is Lieutenant General Solo speaking. Mom? Now is not the best time." I grab the piece of metal with my left hand and try to keep shooting. "We're at Maz's castle, well outside of it."

"We're on our way, Ben. If you can just hang on for a little longer, we'll be there."

"Okay, okay. Poe's hurt."

"We have a medic ready." She assures me.

"I need to concentrate right now, Mom."

"Stay safe, General Organa out."

"Lieutenant General Solo out." Even when I'm in the middle of battle, mom feels the need to go through the formalities of commlinks. Others from the castle have joined us in fighting off the Stormtroopers. "The Resistance is on its way."

I feel everyone relax slightly, but then another round of shots from the Stormtroopers come, and we're as tense as ever. I look out over the lack and see the line of X-Wings flying low, kicking water up in their wake.

"Look! Over there!" I point for Rey and Finn to see. "They're here." The Stormtroopers all turn, confused to see their enemy. Resistance pilots take over the air and shoot down every Stormtrooper they can. Our circle relaxes as the Stormtroopers quickly realize that they're outnumbered. They all begin rushing back to their shuttles, no doubt receiving an order from their helmets. Good, run and hide.

Finn holds Poe up as he clutches to his injured arm. Several First Order shuttles get shot down by Resistance X-Wings. I almost smile.

Mom's getting close. She never did hone her skills as a Jedi, but her presence in the Force has almost no equal. That, and I know my mother's presence well.

"Mom's here," I tell Dad. He doesn't say anything, just nods. The General's shuttle lands and several officers come out, including a medic for Poe's arm.

Ever so slowly, Mom walks out of her ship with the same grace and poise she's always had until she makes eye contact with me. "Ben!"

"Mom." I jog over to her and hug her.

"We were so afraid when we couldn't get in contact with your comm. We had feared the worst. We thought that we had lost you, Poe, and the map all at once. But you're safe, you're safe." I have to slouch as she holds my face in her hands, checking me for injuries.

"Ah, Master Ben. How good it is to see you in one piece."

"Thanks, Threepio."

"Han Solo!" Threepio exclaims. I step to the side so Mom can see Dad. "It is I, C3PO. You probably didn't recognize me because of the red arm."

"I recognized you, Threepio." Dad assures him. I quietly lead the droid away, asking him to go make sure Poe is alright.

"Understood, Master Ben." The gold droid shuffles back into the shuttle, and I rejoin Maz, Finn, and Rey.

"That's your mom?" Rey asks, slightly in awe.

"Yeah."

"How are you, Maz?" Mom asks, apparently finishing her conversation with Dad.

"I would be much better if those First Order goons had not blown up my castle."

"I'm sorry, we got here as quick as we could."

"I don't blame you, Leia." Maz smiles before turning back to look at the wreckage. "This is going to take a while." Before anyone else can say anything, she starts walking towards the remains of her Castle.

"And who are your new friends, Ben?" Mom walks over to the three of us, seemingly trying to figure out everything she can about the other two. "I am Leia Organa, Resistance General and Ben's mother."

"Finn." Finn takes Mom's outstretched hand and shakes it. "It's an honor."

"Rey." The two women clasp hands, and mom looks strangely at her.

"It is nice to meet you both. Come." She starts leading us back to her shuttle.

"We have to go back to Dad's freighter. The map is in Poe's BB unit with Uncle Chewie."

"Your father told me." Mom assures me. "We'll be making a stop there before we go home."


	10. The Deal

**AN:**

 **Hi. I do not own** ** _Star Wars_** **.**

 **Guest (Chapter Nine): Perhaps, you shall see.**

 **Rey**

Meeting General Organa feels strange. It feels like it did when I met Han like this person shouldn't actually exist. She's very kind and intelligent. Despite her height, she commands the room better than her giant of a son. She's exactly what I expected when I heard stories of the Rebel Princess as a child, only older.

She keeps dotting on Ben, checking his every injury, and worrying about how much sleep he's been getting. She may be a general, but first and foremost she is his mother. Ben doesn't seem to mind too much, but maybe he's just used to it. Han sits next to his son. A family reunited.

Finn sits next to Poe who's currently getting a shot in his arm to keep the wound from getting infected. Friends helping each other.

And I'm alone. I pull my knees to my chest and stare at the wall. The rocking of the ship as we exit the atmosphere and go to the other side of the planet, where the freighter is, almost knocks me off balance.

"Rey!" Ben calls. I look up to see him motioning for me to join them. I try to walk confidently, but General Organa's eyes seem to study me and my every move. Ben pats the seat next to him, and I hesitantly sit down.

"How are you, Rey?" General Organa asks, standing in front of me.

"I'm alright. I managed to not get injured."

"That's good." Her smile is warm and welcoming. "I wanted to thank you, for helping Ben and BB8. As a general, I want to thank you for saving my men and this most important operation. As a mother, I want to thank you for saving my pride and joy." Ben's face tints pink. "I'm uncertain that he would be here if you had not come across him."

"He seems competent enough to take care of himself, General Organa." General Organa and Han laugh some. Ben just gets redder.

"Just Leia, please. That he is, but he doesn't have much experience in deserts. After some somewhat traumatizing experiences, Han and I preferred not to go back. So, Ben never really had gone to one. Please don't try to deflect my thanks. You deserve it." She pulls me up and hugs me. It's perhaps the tenderest touch I've ever experienced. My eyes start heating up, and I may cry. When was the last time someone hugged me?

"General, we're docking." A Resistance officer says.

"Alright." Leia releases me, and we sit. Ben is on my right, Leia on my left. The docking is incredibly turbulent. Had I not been strapped in, I'm sure I would have fallen off my seat. Leia grabs onto my arm to steady herself. "Han, this is terrible."

"Yeah, I know." Han sighs. Eventually, we're finally docked, and the door opens to Chewbacca and BB8. BB8 blips happily and rolls to their master, worrying over the blaster wound. Chewbacca roars a greeting, and Leia goes to hug him.

"Hello, Walking Carpet." Chewbacca doesn't seem offended, this must be some long-standing thing between them. "Alright, Han, where's the hunk of junk?"

"That hunk of junk has saved your life many, many times."

"Han, she's been falling apart as long as I've known you."

"But she's still intact."

"For now." Leia takes her husband's arm as they walk through the freighter, Chewbacca in tow, no doubt towards the Falcon.

"They're always like this," Ben assures me. "As far as I can tell, they've always been like this, even before I was born."

"Well, everyone expresses themselves in different ways." I shrug. "What was the walking carpet thing?"

"It's an old joke from the first time Mom met Uncle Chewie." Ben stands and stretches.

"What do we do now?"

"Let my parents go be nostalgic and then leave." He plops back down next to me.

"Solid plan."

"I'm sorry if my mom embarrassed you."

"No, she didn't. You looked more embarrassed than I was."

"She's my mom, she lives to embarrass me."

"Not like it's hard!" Poe yells from across the shuttle. "In fact, let's see how easy it is. Rey, did you know that Ben-"

"I don't know your planned ending to that sentence, but whatever it is will not be spoken aloud." Ben threatens. But I want to know.

"See, I didn't even have to finish my sentence to embarrass him." Poe laughs. I'll ask him to tell me later. Ben harrumphs next to me, defeated. We sit in silence for a while after that, Poe's getting stitched up now that everything's stable. Eventually, Han, Leia, and Chewbacca return to the ship.

"Alright, kid, you guys have to go," Han tells his son. Ben stands and hugs him, then Chewbacca. "Take care of yourself, Finn, you too Poe." Han turns to me. "Remember what I said."

"I'm still here, aren't I?" The old man smirks at me.

"I'll be home within the month, Ben, I promise."

"Okay, I'll see you then." Han hugs his son and wife again, waves to the rest of us, and exits the shuttle. The doors shut behind the man and the Wookie, and we leave the freighter and quickly jump to lightspeed. I'm sure that had Poe, Finn, and I not been here, Ben and Leia would be having some military or political conversation about the war. Han did say that neither of them wants to do anything but work.

"Rey, do you know anything about the Force? The Jedi?" Leia asks.

"Only a little." I shake my head.

"Are there times when you can predict things before they happen, or sense things that you should not be able to?"

"I guess." My shoulders shrug.

"Ben told me that you two shared a Force Vision. Force Visions are seen solely by those who are Force-sensitive. Normally, it is only those very strong and trained who can see them."

"So?"

"So, I think that once my brother returns, he will have another pupil," Leia explains calmly.

"What? No, I can't train to be a Jedi! I have to go back to…" Do I though? Do I have to return to Jakku? I've jumped out of my seat, when did that happen?

"Rey?" Ben asks, dark eyes filled with concern. I don't reply, just sit in silence. Leia looks at me, worried. Can she sense my feelings the way Ben seems to? She's not trained, but if sensing things is signs of Force-sensitivity, then maybe she can. "I could start training you if you want."

"What?"

"I could teach you some basic things, like lifting rocks and dueling. We could do this for a time, and then you can decide whether or not you want to continue with the training when Uncle Luke returns."

"And what? Lead to us-" Ben cuts me a look, reminding me that Force Vision contents are not meant to be shared with those who did not experience them. "Why do something that could cause that to happen? Doesn't it make more sense for us to try and avoid that?"

"We'll discuss that later." Everyone looks at Ben and I confused. "Try it, please. The Jedi are almost extinct. We can't let the Darkside win this way. We have to have more Jedi."

A pregnant pause hangs in the air as everyone waits for my reply. "Fine, for a little while. But, you have to teach me how to do that persuasion thing. I need Unkar Plutt to give me fairer trades."

Despite Ben's smile, I sense his stomach drop. I'm still going back.

"I promise I will. So, we have a deal. You stay for a little while, I train you in the basic ways of the Force, and you learn old Jedi mind tricks." He stands and sticks out his hand for me to shake. I tentatively take it and shake it twice.

"Deal."

 **You need a teacher.**


	11. The Roommate

**AN:**

 **Hello, lovelies. I am not the owner of these characters, also for characters that have yet to be introduced, but we will be meeting in** ** _The Last Jedi_** **: I'm taking a guess y'all. I won't be going back to fix it after the movie comes out, I don't have time for that. I'm moving my upload time to eve so I have all day to work on the chapters cause I'm back in school. So, you get two chapters today.**

 **unidash: Thank you!**

 **Rey**

The Resistance Base is flooded with people. Apparently, word of Poe and Ben's return had spread, and everyone wanted to see them. Poe holds his injured arm close to him and allows Finn to clear the crowd a little to keep anything bad from happening.

No one even attempts to talk to Ben. Several people smile at him, but that's it. He gets much colder, stands straighter, looks decidedly less approachable than he did even in the shuttle. His mother is very similar. "Finn, please accompany Poe to the hospital, Ben or I will stop by soon to show you to your new quarters. Rey, come with me. They were able to find you a roommate rather quickly. I'm sure that you'll want to change into something more comfortable." I look down at the clothes Han and Chewie gave me. Yeah, I need something that fits better.

"Yes, ma'am." Ben follows us for some reason, I guess he doesn't have anything else to do without his mom being there. The hallways in the Resistance Base are winding and confusing. I don't know how I'm going to find my way around this place.

Leia stops in front of a door and knocks briskly. A young woman with black hair and dark eyes opens the door. "General Organa. Lieutenant General Solo."

"Miss Tico, are you ready?"

"Yes, ma'am." Rose steps to the side and Leia leads us inside.

"Rey, this is your new roommate, Rose Tico. Rose, this is Rey." Ben introduces us. I take Rose's outstretched hand and shake it.

"It's nice to meet you." I smile.

"You as well." She smiles back.

"We're having a briefing at fourteen hundred, you have to be there Rey," Leia informs me.

"Where do I go?" I don't know how I got to here, I don't know how to get to anything.

"I'll come get you." Ben offers.

"Thank you."

"In the meantime, make yourself comfortable." Leia and Ben leave, and I am able to look around the room I now live in. There are two narrow beds, both with light gray sheets and dark gray blankets. Each is made pristinely.

"The first door on the left leads to a fresher we share with the next room, you need to make sure that both doors are locked before you do anything in there. The second is a closet, we'll need to take you to get your size checked. If now works, we should go. You've got two and a half hours until the briefing."

-oOo-

It doesn't take them long to find me some fitting clothes, I guess they just have a storage facility filled with uniforms and such. Rose helps me carry the new clothes back to our room while asking ten million questions about my life and how I ended up here.

"So, Jakku? I don't think I've ever been there."

"Why would you? There's nothing there."

"You stayed."

"It's where I grew up. My family dropped me off when I was young with only a promise of returning."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, I chose to stay as long as I did." And I can choose to go back anytime I want now.

"But you're here now, and that's what matters." That's what matters. "How did you get roped in with General Solo?"

"I found him on Jakku. He was on a mission with Poe, they got separated, and I found Ben wandering in the dunes. Thank goodness, I did, or he might not have made it. Jakku's weather is excruciating for any human even those who've lived there for years. Without water and shelter, he would've died."

" _Ben_? Really? The only people I've ever heard refer to him so casually are his mother and Poe."

"Not his father?"

"Han Solo's never really around." She shakes her head. "He comes back for a week or two every few months. Everyone looks forward to when Solo and Chewbacca come back because they always bring new supplies. I've never met the man, just the Wookie. Normally Solo goes off with his family as soon as they land, leaving Chewbacca to man the ship as we unload supplies."

"He's nice." I shrug. "Helped us a lot, though that's probably only thanks to Ben."

"Wait, you met him?"

"Yeah, he found us not too long after we got off Jakku."

"What was he like?"

"Interesting," too say the least, "He was very worried about how Le-General Organa was going to react once Ben returned."

"General Organa scares everyone. We all admire her, but no one wants to invoke her wrath."

"I can see that." She seems very passionate. "I'm going to use the fresher. I'm going to be working thirteen years of sand out of my hair for a long time." Long time.

-oOo-

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

Ben's here.

I open the door to see him standing in fresh clothes: dark green shirt and dark brown pants. His hair is not wet, though I had expected it to be. "Ready?"

"I guess."

"More than likely you won't have to tell your whole side of the story, they may just want you to fill in some things and confirm others. Also, Poe and I decided that we're not going to tell everyone how his rescue happened. My mother would murder me for doing something so reckless."

"I understand." I look over my shoulder to Rose. "I'll be back later."

"You remember the code, right?" She doesn't look up from her datapad.

"Yes, I do."

"Okay, bye." Still doesn't look up. The door closes behind me as I leave, lock clicking firmly.

"I was able to get you a datapad. There isn't much on there right now, but there is a map, which you will probably want." He pulls out the sleek metal rectangle and hands it to me. He shows me how it works as we walk. This thing is a lot nicer and a lot newer than any of the technologies I scavenged on Jakku. "Did that make any sense?"

"Yes, I understand." Kind of.

"In the morning you are to report to General Organa's office to choose a job."

"Does every recruit have all of this?" A meeting with the General about my job? That seems beneath her.

"No, you are an exception. After all, if you do decide to stay, you will be trained with me to be a Jedi." A Jedi. I still haven't fully wrapped my head around that.


	12. The Boring Part

**AN:**

 **Hello. I still don't own** ** _Star Wars_** **.**

 **Ben**

"You're late," I comment as she opens the door to the outside, not opening my eyes or changing my sitting position.

"I still don't know where I'm going half the time." She reminds me.

"You will need to work on that."

"I'm trying, General Solo." I open my eyes at that.

"What? Why did you call me that?"

"We're with the Resistance, you outrank me. On Jakku you needed me for survival, here I'm relying on you." Rey, that's not how…okay, it kind of is.

"You don't have to call me that."

"Why not?" she raises one eyebrow. "Rose said that the only people she's ever heard call you by your first name are your mother and Poe."

"You're my friend, Rey, I don't expect you to refer to me as General Solo. Military meetings, yes, but that's different; it's required there. I have to call my own mother 'General Organa'." I guess that's what we are.

"We're friends?"

"What else would we be?" She shrugs. "Sit with me."

She plops down next to me and mimics my sitting position. "What are we doing?"

"Meditating. A large portion of the early training is spent meditating. You clear your mind and just feel. Without your eyesight, your other senses heighten. The more heightened your senses are, the more in touch with the Force you are."

"Does it stay afterward?"

"Not for long, that's why you have to keep doing it. The more times you've done it, the longer it will stay with you."

"So, it just happens or what?"

"Don't worry, I'll help you." I raise my chin and shut my eyes again. The block of concrete we sit on isn't very long, so our knees brush. Which isn't technically a bad thing, physical contact tends to help in this sort of thing.

She takes a deep breath and does as I do.

I focus on her, on her every movement and breath. She's nervous, tense. "Relax."

"Easier said than done"

"I know, why do you think it takes years?" She's impatient, most are. I certainly was and still am. "Look, if we can do this for an hour, I'll start teaching you how to duel with a lightsaber."

She perks up a little at that. My brain is telling me that I should be concerned about how much she wants to learn how to fight, but the rest of me is remembering that I was the same way.

With renewed determination, Rey slowly clears her mind of all trivial thoughts. She's calm, serene. Maybe twenty minutes in, she's practically radiating with the Force. It's incredible, really. No training and yet one of the strongest presences I've ever felt. "What do you see?"

"Light…darkness…a balance." Her voice is somehow strong and light at the same time. "And something else." Something else? "I see you," _me_ , "your left sleeve button is undone."

Well, that was an abrupt turn. "What else is here, around us."

"There are three X-Wings sitting on the landing pad." When she arrived, there were four, two flew away and another arrived. "Someone's watching us."

"Do they have malicious intent?" I know that it's just Poe and Finn being curious, but I don't know if she can sense that.

"No. No, they're just curious." Good. "You're worrying about something."

"Yes, I am."

"You're worried that Snoke will sense us doing this and find us."

"Yes."

"You're afraid that you aren't strong enough." I feel her gently probing my mind. This should anger me, and to an extent it does, but her touch is so calming. "You worry about growing attached to anyone; that something's going to happen, and they'll be ripped away from you. You're a…afraid that you'll turn to the darkness and be the one to rip them away." That's enough.

I try to gently force her out of my mind. It doesn't quite work. "That's enough for now. You're learning incredibly quickly."

She slowly opens her eyes, allowing them to adjust to the bright sun. "Thank you."

"Come on, we need some open space for this." I stand, taking her hand and helping her up.

"Where are we going?"

"There's a field where we can practice without destroying anything. Lightsabers can cut through anything except themselves."

"You might want to fix that left sleeve button."

 **I know it's short, but I had the first half of a final today.**


	13. The Exciting Part

**AN:**

 **Hello. I do not own** ** _Star Wars_** **or any of its characters, sadly.**

 **Also, I have a question that has been bugging my roommate and me for like a month now. Is Ben's birth name Ben, Obi Wan, or Benjamin? We just find it somewhat hard to believe that Leia Organa would give her son Obi Wan's sand hermit name. Is the full name "Benjamin" a name a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away? I just want to know!**

 **Rey**

Lieutenant General Ben Solo of the Resistance, son of General/Princess Leia Skywalker Organa Solo and Han Solo, nephew of the last surviving Jedi, Luke Skywalker, is such a showoff.

Almost as soon as he turned on his lightsaber he twirled it around his hand. I would try, I could twirl my staff pretty well, but if I messed up with my staff I wouldn't lose a hand.

"If you need to change the length, there is a dial here. You're shorter than Uncle Luke, so you might want to." He goes through explaining to me what all the buttons do and how the saber itself works. "Inside is a kyber crystal. Kyber crystals are naturally colorless, but once a Jedi constructs their saber it takes on a color that reflects their relationship to the Force. It doesn't change when someone else wields it."

"Why do some of them have crossguards, like yours?" This one doesn't.

"Most don't, it's a very old design. There's a bunch of different lightsaber designs. Some people wield one in each hand, there are double bladed sabers, some have curved handles. It all depends on the designer." He steps away from me and sighs. "I don't have one of the stupid little training droids that shoot electrical shots at you for you to deflect." He looks around, I don't know what he's trying to find. "I guess I could throw rocks at you."

I know that he probably means using the Force, but I'm just imagining with an armful of pebbles pelting me with them.

"Your saber will protect you if you use it properly. The good news for you is that you already know how to fight with your staff." He flicks his hand and several rocks float into the air.

He starts out slow, tossing one at a time at low velocities. But once I'm hitting every single one he starts to speed up. They also start coming from different directions. I have to turn and twist in seconds to keep the rocks from hitting me. He doesn't say anything, just keeps hurling rocks at me. Maybe he's angry about earlier. I know that I shouldn't have gone inside his head, but…I don't know how I could justify it. I was curious, he was open, and…Yeah, there's no justifying it.

"That's enough for now. You missed twelve out of eighty-nine. I'm impressed." Only twelve?

"Why stop at eighty-nine?"

"We ran out of rocks." Oh. "Alright, you up for sparring?"

"Yes." Yes. Yay!

He reignites his saber and leans his head from side to side. "You ready?"

I fall into a fighting stance with my legs spread and one in front of the other. "Yes."

He doesn't waste time. His first attack is a lunge at my left side. I easily step to the side and strike at him. His saber catches mine, and I'm pushed backward. He takes the offensive, towering over me and striking before I can even think to attack him. "Use the Force. It will help you see attacks before they come."

I try to tap into the Force, but then he's swinging at me again and I lose my focus.

"You have to be able to connect to it in any situation. Don't let yourself be distracted."

"Concentrate!"

"Show me that you're strong enough!"

"Prove to me that you're worth it!"

Am I?

Am I worth it?

Last week I was no one, just a scavenger struggling to survive on a planet that doesn't matter. What's changed?

Everything.

Everything's changed.

I am a member of the Resistance.

I have friends.

I have people who care.

And I am going to be a Jedi.

Something wells up within me, and I strike at him. He's practically stumbling backward, but I don't let up. I swing at him again and again. Above, below, to the side, below, above, above. Below.

He misses.

My saber makes contact with his shoulder and the side of his face. He grunts and falls to the ground. I turn the saber off and throw it to the side. "Ben? Ben?"

He leans back on one of his elbows and looks at me. "I'll be fine, it isn't deep."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. You could've been killed. I could have killed you." My words start becoming unrecognizable and are just noises.

"Rey. Rey!" I stop talking and look at him. "It's fine. Whatever you did to get that power, it's exactly what you needed to do."

"We need to get you to the infirmary." I slowly help him up.

"Remember your saber." He mumbles and leans on me. I call the cursed blade to me before clipping it to my belt.

"Do you think that you can walk back?"

"It's my shoulder that's hurt, not my legs." Also, your face.

"Can you see out of both eyes?" Please don't let him lose an eye because of me.

"Yes, Rey, I'll be fine. Lightsaber wounds instantly cauterize."

The trek back to the base feels a lot longer than it probably actually is. Once we arrive things are not much better. People stop and stare at us as we walk past.

"What happened?" Poe runs over to us from the landing pad.

"Accidents involving lightsabers are common. Unlike metal blades, there's no stopping a lightsaber." This is not the time.

"We gotta get you to the infirmary." Where do you think I'm taking him? "How are you going to explain this to your mom?"

Shit. I forgot about that. I'm going to have to tell her that I hurt her son. Her Pride and Joy.

"It doesn't matter right now, alright. I just have to get to the infirmary so that this doesn't get infected." Ben starts walking again.

"BB8, go get General Organa," Poe says behind us. "Tell her to meet us in the infirmary."

-oOo-

Poe and I are sitting outside Ben's room when General Organa arrives. The medical droid said that no non-family members were allowed at this moment. I stand when she enters the hallway, as does everyone else present. "Where is he?" I point towards the door to my right. She doesn't acknowledge me, just enters. The door stays open behind her, but I resist the temptation to peak in. "What happened, Ben?"

"It was an accident. I pushed her too hard and something within her snapped. I was sloppy and missed her swing. It wasn't her fault, it was mine. I should have been faster."

"She? Rey did this? I thought that girl couldn't hurt anyone."

"She didn't mean to. We were sparring, there's always danger in that." I can sense General Organa's indecision.

"I don't know if I should allow this training to continue."

"It was one time! I'll be better next time, faster. If she isn't trained, then there is no hope left for the Jedi."

"There isn't any hope anyways if we can't find _him_."

"Then we need her even more."


	14. The Space Bandage

**AN:**

 **Did you think that I wasn't going to give him his scar? Anyways, I don't own any of these characters.**

 **Guest (Chapter 13): Yes, he should have. However, as we know Rey is insanely powerful and this Ben Solo isn't fully trained. He isn't Kylo Ren, he was trying to get her to open up that power but wasn't prepared for just how strong she was.**

 **Ben**

The medical droid stitched up shoulder and face, applied a lot of bacta to it, and then placed a water-proof bandage over it. "You should be healed within two weeks. Until then, no strenuous activities that could tear the stitches."

Shit.

"Will it scar permanently?" Mom asks.

"I am afraid so. Though, it will not be as large as it is now." Great.

"Rey!" I call. I hear her chair squeak, but she doesn't appear in the doorway. "Rey, come here."

Her tri-bunned head peaks in. She's terrified.

"Sit down, Rey." Please don't yell at her, Mom. Rey hesitantly sits down next to her.

"It's going to scar?" I nod. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to. I'm-I'm sorry that you're stuck with it forever."

"It's fine, Rey. I've got plenty of stupider scars." Then it hits me, she can see many of them right now. I don't have a shirt because they had to stitch up my shoulder. No wonder she won't look at me, plus the guilt.

"Rey, we don't blame you. Lightsabers are extremely dangerous, and accidents happen easily. We're just lucky that you merely scraped him." Mom places her hand on my elbow. "He'll be out of commission for around two weeks, but will be good as new soon enough. In the meantime, I am going to have to decide whether or not this training should continue. If it is dangerous to either of you, then I cannot morally allow it."

"Understood." Rey nods.

"I fear that I was in the middle of a meeting when this occurred. So, I must go. I will speak to you later, Ben." Mom stands and brushes some of my hair out of my face.

"I'm fine, Mom. I've gotten worse injuries than this."

"Goodbye." She says as she exits the room.

"Bye." Rey and I say at the same time.

"Is there anything that I need to get you?" Rey's eyebrows are wrinkled in concern. _Like a shirt or…_

"What?"

"I asked if there was anything you need me to get you."

"No, after that." I could've sworn.

"I didn't say anything after that." What?

"Oh…anyways, I'm fine for now." I turn to the medical droid. "When can I leave?"

"You may leave at any time, sir. In one week you should return to us to ensure that you are healing properly."

"Okay." I reach over to the table next to me for my shirt. This is going to be fun.

"Please be careful, we cannot have you ripping the stitches." Lots of fun. It takes a while, but eventually, I have dressed again. Rey waited patiently for me still concerned.

"I'll be fine, Rey."

"I know, but…" She shakes her head. "It's around six, you want to grab Poe and go to dinner?"

"Sounds good to me." I follow her out of the room to see Poe and BB8 patiently waiting for us.

"How's the face?"

"It's been better." I roll my eyes. "You hungry?"

"Yes." He shoots out of his chair. "I'll message Finn."

"I should probably message Rose and ask if she wants to join us." Rey pulls out her datapad and starts typing. "She's already eaten."

"Finn's already there."

We're stopped around two dozen times for people to ask what happened to me. Rey is filled with more and more guilt each time. She shouldn't be, I pushed her to that point. I wanted to push her to that point, she had to tap into that power. I just wasn't prepared for how strong she actually is. Despite the physical toll it took on me, I'm glad I did it. She was radiating in the Force stronger than any person I've ever met. I think that was part of it, too, just the shock of her presence caught me off guard.

Anyways, it takes about twenty minutes for a two-minute walk.

"What happened to your face?" I almost give up and throw myself over the table. I've answered this question so many times in the past hour. I stare down at the empty table in front of me; Rey insisted that she go get my food. Poe is whispering to Finn what occurred so that I don't have to. This is how it's going to be for a long time since it's going to scar. "Has anyone told your dad?"

"I'm sure Mom did." Rey slides the plate of food in front of me before sitting opposite me at the table. BB8 chirps at me holding a glass of water. "Thanks."

"Be careful," Rey warns.

"If I can't eat without ripping the stitches these are going to be the worst two weeks of my life."

"They might be anyways." True.

"This doesn't mean that you're getting out of meditating every day."

 **I had the other half of that final today.**


	15. The Base

**AN:**

 **I do not own** ** _Star Wars_** **. Even the copy of** ** _The Force Awakens_** **I currently have in my dorm room I stole from my house. I've got a one-shot up called** ** _The Balance_** **which is how I want Episode 9 to end.**

 **Guest (Chapter 14; review in Spanish): Thank you. I do not speak Spanish, so I had to google translate your comment as I am sure you are doing with these chapters. The fact that you decided that it is worth reading even through translation really means a lot to me. Thank you.**

 **Guest (Chapter 14; review in English): Well, you see how kind she is to BB8 when they first meet in the movie, and a lot of the fanon has her being somewhat nurturing. She feels guilty and wants to make up for it.**

 **Rey**

It's been two weeks since I sliced Ben's face in half. He somehow convinced General Organa to allow us to continue with our training as long as no other major injuries occur. The scar isn't as bad as I feared, but it's really long. He joked that it was a "talking point" now. I was not amused.

Poe said that he thought it looked cool, made him look like a hardened warrior.

Finn doesn't care.

Rose thinks that it makes him scarier.

I'm supposed to be meditating right now while Poe, Ben, and General Organa are in a military meeting, but I'm really bored, so Finn and I are hanging out while I repair an x-wing engine. After I expressed my enjoyment of repairing things and experience scavenging on Jakku, General Organa suggested that I be a part of the repair crew.

"Have you figured out a last name yet?" When Finn and I arrived, we were told that we needed to have last names for the records, however, neither of us have them, so they gave us three weeks to figure them out.

"No, you?"

"Yes, actually." I thought of it yesterday while looking through my datapad's botany database.

"Really, what?"

"Rosaceae, it's part of the scientific name for a flower. I thought it sounded cool." I finally yank the bad wire out.

"Rey Rosaceae. I like it."

"You need to figure one out for yourself. Hand me the socket wrench." It takes four tries, but he eventually gets it.

"I know, but I don't know many last names. The only ones I know are people here and First Order officers. I don't want to use any of those."

"Finn!" Poe bursts into the hangar. "We need you."

"What? What's wrong?" Finn jumps off the table he was sitting on.

"The First Order's found us, they're bringing Starkiller here as we speak. Any information you can give us we need."

"Here? How?"

"We found a tracker on our reconnaissance ship." Oh no. "You can come, too, Rey."

"If we're going to evacuate I have to get this ship finished. Go, I'll still be here when you get back." Finn and Poe exchange looks before bolting from the room.

-oOo-

 **Ben**

Poe and Finn are heaving when they get to us. They must have run the whole way. "Finn, is there anything you can tell us about this?"

"Yeah, I worked there. What do you need to know?" He straightens and walks towards the hologram.

"A weapon of this size has to have some sort of thermal oscillator. Where is it?" One of the Majors asks.

"Precinct 47."

"If we can destroy that oscillator, then the planet would destabilize."

"And the entire planet could blow up," I state.

"There's energy shields. You have to be on the planet to shut them down." Finn explains.

"Can you do it?"

"I can get them down." He nods. He's lying. "But someone has to get me on that planet."

"I can do it."

"Ben!" It's jarring to hear my first name right now. "How exactly do you plan on doing that?"

"If I told you, you wouldn't let me go."

"You are too much like your father sometimes." Mom grumbles. "Is there any way that someone could go in your place?"

"I don't trust anyone else." My plan is crazy, I'm not putting that on anyone else. "I'll need a copilot. Sorry Finn, but you have no clue what you're doing."

"I'll go." Poe offers.

"No, you're needed with the X-Wings to hit the oscillator once the shield is down."

"What about Rey? She's a good pilot."

"If she's willing." I can't force her.

"You leave in two hours. We don't have much time." Mom sighs.

-oOo-

"You two ready to go?" I ask.

"Ready," Finn says behind us. I look over to Rey who gives me a thumb up.

"Well, it's now or never." I send the ship into lightspeed. "You lied in the meeting, Finn. You don't know how to disable the shields."

"Then why did you agree to this?"

"Because my plan is to find a stormtrooper or officer and _persuade_ them to shut them off for us."

"Oh."

"Why did you lie?"

"I guess I want to prove that I'm not the Stormtrooper I was. I want to be a hero."

"You're lucky that I'm coming with you and not some other pilot. While we're on the planet, we're going to place some explosives in the oscillator, help out our air crew some more."

"So, what exactly is our plan?" Rey's eyebrows scrunch up.

"When we arrive on the planet we have to sneak our way to the oscillator. While I'm getting the shields shut down, you two place the explosives. They'll know as soon as the shields are shut down, so we have to work fast. Get out of the oscillator and to the ship as soon as possible, once you're safe, contact me and I'll shut down the shields. Then I'll detonate the explosives and meet you back here."

"I don't like the idea of us splitting up. What if something happens to you?" Rey worries. "What will we do?"

"Get yourselves to safety. If you haven't heard from me two minutes after the explosives go off, leave. Leave me behind."

"We can't just-"

"Rey, I know what I signed up for when I agreed to this. I've made my decisions. If anything happens to me, don't let it be in vain. Give 'em Hell."

"What will we tell your mother?"

"She'll know why I did it. She'll honor what I fought for." I don't dare consider what will happen if either of them don't make it. "Making our landing approach."

Finn notices that I don't go out of lightspeed. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Their shields keep out anything moving slower than lightspeed." I sense passing through the shields. "Rey, take us out."

I pull back hard on the controls. Finn screams behind me. The ground is a lot closer than he anticipated.

"Stay low or they'll see us." Rey warns.

"I know! Hold tight!" I concentrate and slow us down as quickly as possible without giving us whiplash. My chest heaves once we finally stop.

Finn starts laughing hysterically. After a second of shock, Rey and I join in. "You're insane."

"Yeah, but it worked." I laugh. It takes another thirty seconds for me to stop. "We gotta go. The fleet will be here soon."


	16. The Oscillator

**AN:**

 **Hello, lovelies. I don't own** ** _Star Wars_** **.**

 **Rey**

This is insanity. I didn't realize that Ben was actually insane. He's always seemed so logical, yet here we are.

Finn doesn't seem nearly as worried.

"I'll call you as soon as the explosives go off. If anything happens, contact me. I'll see what I can do." Ben adjusts his blaster holster. "Whatever you do, once the fighters come in and the oscillator is completely destroyed, get off the planet. I don't care if I'm there or not."

"Ben," I squeak out, "you're going to be fine. You'll make it back to us."

"I'll do my best." I instinctively wrap my arms around him in a hug. "I'll make it out, Rey, I swear."

"You better," I mumble into his shoulder. "You still haven't taught me to be persuasive."

"Maybe I never will if that's the only reason I'm of value to you."

"We gotta go, they'll know we're here." Finn butts in. Ben's arms drop from around me and he takes a step back.

"Try to spread out the explosives, we need to weaken the entire thing." They both nod. "May the Force be with us."

-oOo-

"There are approximately two dozen columns. How many bombs do we have?" I count.

"Three dozen."

"So, let's go two on every other one and one on the rest. Finn, can you get up to that next floor?" Ben looks around.

"Yeah, yeah I can." He takes one of the three bags and runs towards where I assume a flight of stairs is.

"Be careful." Please, Ben.

"I'll be fine, Rey. We've gotta be quiet." He eyes the troopers marching down a perpendicular hallway.

"I chose a last name."

"Rey." He breathes. "Don't do this. I'll be back."

"Ro-"

"Tell me when I get back." He looks indecisive for a minute before kissing my cheek. Both of our faces turn red before he runs off to shut down the shields.

He just…

Why did he?

I…

I can't think about this now. I stand up and sneak towards the columns. Finn's already halfway done.

I don't try to keep a consistent height or placement, I just try to hide them, so no one will take them off before we have our chance. There's thankfully no troopers marching around the oscillator right now. I'm sure there's security holos or something, but hopefully, we'll be out of here long before they notice us. At some point, Finn joined me again. Every few minutes my com buzzes as Ben assures me that he's okay. I'll tap mine to do the same.

"Why's your face red?" Wait, it still is?!

"No reason. I just get red sometimes." That was a terrible lie, and he knows it. Thankfully, he doesn't push it. It's fast work with both of us. "We gotta go."

"I don't know how large the blast radius is gonna be." We sneak around for a long time trying to get back to the planet's surface. I'm so grateful that Finn knows how this place is set up. Once we're relatively close to the ship and away from the oscillator I grab my com.

"Ben? Ben, are you there?"

"Yeah, I am. I was just waiting for your call."

"We're out of there and currently running to the ship. We think we're far enough."

"Okay, be careful. I was able to get this silver trooper to shut off the security holos in the oscillator and redirect her troops."

"You got Phasma? Damn." Finn laughs. "Light 'em up, Ben."

"You will lower the shields to the planet and the oscillator."

"I will lower the shields to the planet and the oscillator."

"You will forget that you ever saw me after that door closes behind me, but you will never raise those shields again," Phasma repeats it back to him. "And you will stop anyone else from raising those shields."

"And I will stop anyone else from raising these shields."

"Here goes nothing." Ben says before I assume pushing the button. The sound of the explosion reaches us a minute later. "I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm on my way."

He's fine. A weight comes off my shoulders, and my energy is renewed. We're actually doing this. I can't believe that this is working.

We make it back to the ship, and I get the engine running so that we're ready to leave once Ben arrives. Finn's watching anxiously from the loading ramp. "He's coming."

He's coming.

He's coming.

We're getting the Hell off this damn planet.

"Rey?" Thank goodness.

"We're ready to go!" I yell back. Ben and Finn burst into the cockpit before taking the copilot and passenger's seats respectively.

"Let's hope that was enough." The X-wings are already swooping down above us, hitting that oscillator with all they've got.

"It should be." Ben promises. "Rey, get us the Hell out of here."

"Hold on."

-oOo-

It takes around half an hour for us to get to the rendezvous point. General Organa had everyone evacuate just in case we failed. We couldn't stay for the fight; our shuttle has no guns.

"Ben! Rey! Finn! Thank goodness you three got out alright." General Organa somehow wraps all three of us in a hug. "Come, we're still waiting for confirmation from the fighters."

We follow the small woman to this base's command headquarters. This one is a lot smaller than the main one, but it's out of the system. "What updates have there been?"

"Not many, they seem to be having some trouble."

"That thing wasn't going to come down easy." Ben says.

"No, but now we have a chance." The doors to the command room slide open and everyone cheers for our return. "Any updates, Major?"

"None, ma'am. They think they're close, but that things still intact."

It's several tense minutes before we hear anything. Several of the officers have taken to pacing in various parts of the room, but most of us just stare at the hologram. "WOOHOO!"

I jump nearly a foot in the air.

"We got 'em, General." Poe's voice yells excitedly through the communicator. "That thing's going down!"

Cheers erupt all around us, I'm sure I'll be deaf by morning. But I don't really care. I especially don't care when Ben grabs my waist and pulls me towards him.

His face is so full of joy, and he's the least worried that I've ever seen him. "Rosaceae. That's the name I chose."

Something within him spikes as he grabs my face and pulls it towards his.

And then his lips touch mine.

 ***Evil Laugh***


	17. The Celebration

**AN:**

 **So, how are y'all doing? I'm doing alright. Finals are soon, which sucks, but** ** _The Last Jedi_** **is also soon. I'm so fucking excited. You guys have no idea how hard it is for me to relegate myself to updating only once a day because as soon as I finish a chapter I want to post it. I didn't spend much time with Starkiller because in the film the only reason any of it last as long as it does is Kylo Ren, and he's not Kylo Ren here, so…**

 ** _This is not going to go the way you think._**

 **Also, I don't own** ** _Star Wars_** **.**

 **Funnybunny514: Yeah, I'm way too excited. My poor roommate has to deal with my obsession. But, I'll be home soon and have my sister who's in exactly the same boat as me.**

 **Ben**

I don't know why I did it.

The spike in emotions.

Everyone else's emotions overpowering me.

How incredible it is that we're still alive.

How beautiful her smile is.

The fact that maybe I just want to kiss her.

But I shouldn't have done it. I knew that the second our lips parted. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. I'm not supposed to have romantic attachments, not really. It's against the Jedi code, after all. Even though Uncle Luke never really believed in that part, it's still technically there.

And even if it wasn't, the first time I kissed her should not be a celebration of something's destruction. If I'm going to kiss her it should be because….

Never mind.

I shouldn't have kissed her.

She smiles slightly at me before being pulled away by Finn. Anger spikes within me just like jealousy is within him.

I turn around to walk away and almost walk straight into Mom. "Ben."

"Mom." She blinks at me.

"Would you like to explain?"

"There are hundreds of people celebrating right now, you know how much emotions of that magnitude affect me."

"So that's all that was? How are you planning on explaining that to her?" Mom nods towards Rey. I turn to see her hugging her roommate, Rose.

"She'll understand. She's feeling all of the emotions just as I am." She should be.

"Are you sure?" I turn again and see her smiling at us. I smile back before turning to Mom. "I'm not sure."

"She'll understand."

"Are you sure that you do? I was in denial for a long time about your father."

"He didn't exactly make it easy for you." If I have to hear those stories one more time…

"So, what's your plan? To be him? To make it hard on her? Ben, you're better than that."

"I'm also going to be a Jedi. We both are."

"Ben, those laws are what gave us _him_." Mom never did forgive grandfather for his actions, not that I blame her. "Perhaps it would be best not to follow them."

"Mom!" I've known this girl four weeks.

"I want you to be happy, Ben." She walks away from me as if nothing had happened. Mom!

-oOo-

Rey doesn't really act any differently. Sure, she's sitting closer to me at dinner than normal, but there's also a lot of people in a much smaller space. I don't do what I should, I don't wrap my arm around her shoulders or hold her hand. I place metal walls up so that she doesn't notice the anxiety. "Rey."

"Yes?" She turns from her conversation with Finn.

"Can we go outside for a little while, I have something that I need to talk to you about."

"Sure, I'll be back, Finn."

"Your seats may not be." Finn looks at the overstuffed tables.

"It's fine." Rey waves her hand. Poe whistles at us as we exit, I guess someone told him. I certainly didn't.

This is gonna suck.

Once we're outside and are able to find a spot without security cameras or more people, I start saying my piece.

"Rey, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done what I did earlier. It was unprofessional and presumptuous of me. While there is no excuse for m actions, I ask you to consider the fact that I was not only experiencing my own emotions at that moment but the emotions of the entire Resistance upon getting the news. Again, I am aware that this does not excuse what I did, but I feel as though it does offer some explanation. I hope that we can go back to how we ere before without any awkwardness."

She deflates.

"Oh."

"Have…have you ever kissed anyone before?" She shakes her head. Shit. "Then I'm even sorrier. I shouldn't have taken that from you."

"Have you?" She manages to get out. I slowly shake my head, not really wanting to admit that I'm almost thirty and have never kissed a girl before. "Then you don't have to be sorry for that."

"Can we move past this, Rey?"

"I hope so."

"Thank you. I don't want to lose you as a friend because of this."

"You can make it up to me by explaining to people what happened so that I don't have to."

"Deal."

"And also explain the kiss on Starkiller." Damn.

"I didn't know if I was going to make it back. That was one of those life-or-death situation decisions. I don't remember what was going through my head or if anything was." We stand in silence for a few minutes, each refusing to look at the other.

"Are you going to the celebration tonight?"

"I wasn't planning on it."

"Oh." She looks back down.

"Are you?"

"I'm not sure."

"Should we just pretend like none of this ever happened?"

"That would probably be best."

 **Leia**

Give me grandchildren, Ben!

 **Yeah, we all know that Leia wants grandkids after that Poe Dameron comic with Padmé's dresses.**

 **Also:**

 **I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.**


	18. The Aftermath

**AN:**

 **Not.**

 **It's too early.**

 **But I decided to throw y'all a bone.**

 **I don't own these characters.**

 **Honestly, I write a lot of these chapters at once and then just upload them each day. I haven't counted out the chapters to see when TLJ comes out in relation to these chapters, so… I promise I won't spoil anything if y'all promise to do the same. It's going to be a few days before I can see it because I have a final that day, have to drive home (four hours), and my town has exactly one movie theater and they can't fit many people in each screening.**

 **Also, there's been a bit of a time-jump. Just around a month.**

 **Guest (Chapter 17; who mentioned Leia): Maybe he's so in denial that it's affecting how he views her feelings. Yeah, give Leia grandchildren, Ben!**

 **Guest (Chapter 17; who mentioned Finn): No. No. No. Rey wouldn't do that to make him jealous, she isn't petty like that, and that plotline is dumb every single time. Also, this is a Reylo fic, Finnrey isn't allowed to be canon here. I love Finn, and he's probably going to be with Rose, and I think they're cute. There's no disrespect towards Finn here, he was honestly my favorite new character for a long time.**

 **Rey**

Pretending like it never happened is hard.

Every time I look at him all I can think about is _it_.

Rose had "grilled" me (as Poe put it) about everything that happened that night at the celebration and afterward.

 _"So, what's the deal with you and General Solo?"_

 _"Heat of the moment."_

 _"Really?" Rose raises her eyebrows. "He's never really seemed the type of person to get caught up in that."_

 _"I know." Trust me, I know. "Wait, have you met Finn yet?" I don't think so._

 _"I've passed him in the halls and stuff a couple of times, but no."_

 _"Come on, we're going to see Finn." Anything to get off the topic of Ben._

 _"We aren't finished with that conversation, remember that we live together."_

 _"Finn!" I ignore her and wave him over._

 _"Hey, what's up?"_

 _"I realized that you haven't met Rose yet." I turn so that small Rose isn't hidden behind me. "Finn, this is my roommate, Rose Tico. Rose, this is Finn."_

 _"It's nice to finally meet you." Rose sticks out her hand confidently._

 _"You, too." Finn carefully takes it and shakes it twice. I can feel nervous energy resonating from both of them, their handshake goes on longer than it should._

 _I have gained some playing ground now, Rose. Try to talk to me about Ben again, I dare you._

-oOo-

"Breathe, just breathe." Ben and I are meditating on a small hill overlooking a lake. The Resistance has decided to make the main base here now. Many of the members have had to be reassigned to other bases due to how small this one is, but we can't go back to the old one. Even without Starkiller, the First Order knows that it's there. We send freighters with crews to bring supplies, and everyone can go on one of these trips and grab their personal items.

Meditation has become much easier for me, but today Ben's presence is so distracting.

He's worried, upset, angry at himself, annoyed, longing for something. "What's wrong, Ben?"

"Nothing's wrong." He says too quickly.

"You seem to have forgotten, General Solo, that I have the capability to sense your emotions."

"I'm just under a lot of stress right now, Rey. I've been making a lot of decisions regarding relocation and military attacks. It's been a lot." Oh. I thought that it had something to do with me. "That's one of the reasons that I'm so adamant about us having this time each day, it calms me down, helps me focus."

"Oh." He's probably just longing for sleep at this point.

"Rey?"

"Yes?"

"Are you still going back to Jakku?" I haven't thought about it in almost two weeks.

"No, I'm not."

"What changed your mind?" _You._ "Me?"

"What?"

"You just…didn't you just say…" He's snapped out of his meditative stance, eyes wide and wild. "Think something strong, think something about me."

"What?"

"Just do it!" He orders.

 _What in the world is going on with you?_

 **I heard that.**

"Shit!" I swear I just heard him in my mind. "Did you just think 'I heard that'?"

"Yeah, I did." What's going on? "Mental communication is not uncommon among Force Users. Even untrained my mother was once able to hear Uncle Luke calling for help. But it takes a serious amount of concentration on projecting your thoughts to that person. It isn't something that can be done by accident."

"So…?"

"So, I am concerned as to why I have heard your thoughts several times without you trying to let me hear." He looks afraid. I start picking up on snippets of his thoughts.

 **Uncle Luke…**

 **He never…**

 **It couldn't be…**

 **We didn't try to…**

 **She…**

 **But what else…**

 **It has to be a…**

 **No, there has to be another explanation…**

 **She's extremely power…**

 **Rey…**

 **Force…**

 **Me…**

 **Mom…**

 **The…**

 **Her…**

 **Force Bond.**

"Force Bond? What's that?"

 **It's a link between two Force Users. It's incredibly hard to forge. Though there have been a few cases of accidental forgings, they are few and far between. Normally it is between a Jedi Master and their Padawan. Rey, have you been having strange dreams that don't quite feel like your own?**

 _Yes._

 **Did you dream last night that you were back on Jakku?**

 _Yes._

 **So, did I. It was strange I was both there and not. But, if we're invading each other's dreams, that is a pretty good indication that we've created a bond. Also, our shared Force Vision on Takodona.**

 _Is there any way to break it?_

 **Either our…feelings will have to change. We'll have to completely abandon each other and never look back, or one of us will have to die. Even then it won't be truly broken, whichever one who survives will just be empty, missing a part of themselves.**

 _How did this happen?_

 **I don't know. We should probably go tell my mother. We need to find Uncle Luke as soon as possible.**

 _I don't like our options._

 **Neither do I.**

 _So, I guess we're stuck with this, stuck being inside each other's minds._

 **There are worse things that could happen. I guess.**

 _Worse people to have this with._

 **Rey, I'm sorry. If I hadn't insisted on training you, this never would have happened.**

 _This could be used to our advantage. Silent communication is a useful tool in a war._

 **True.**


	19. The Bond

**AN:**

 **I had to have the Force Bond, okay? For future reference: When they are conversing via Force Bond, Rey's thoughts are italicized while Ben's are bolded. Okay, I'm just gonna say screw it and upload once in the morning once in the evening. I'm only about halfway through what I've got written and want to finish before TLJ comes out.**

 **I don't own** ** _Star Wars_** **.**

 **Guest (Chapter 18): Yay!**

 **Actual Conversation I had with my roommate and felt the need to share**

 **Me: Do you ever think about how fucked up the guy who heard a parrot talk for the first time was afterward?**

 **Her: I don't know, a long time ago we didn't have all of the societal and religious stigma involving it. Marriage wasn't always a thing, and sex was just a necessary part of life.**

 **Me: What?**

 **Her: What?**

 **Me: What does sex have to do with this?**

 **Her: Wait, are you not talking about "the talk", like the sex talk? I thought you just called it "the parent talk" for some reason.**

 **Me: No, I'm talking about parrots, like the bird. I asked if you thought about how messed up the first person who ever heard a parrot speak must have been for a while.**

 **Her: Oh.**

 **Us: *laughing hysterically***

 **Ben**

"We believe that we have accidentally created a Force Bond."

"Are you sure?" Mom asks looking each of us over.

"Relatively." I feel like a teenager admitting to his mom that he did something bad with a girl.

"I will find every bit of information I can. In the meantime, we will still be searching for Luke. He could explain this."

"What should we do?" Rey steps forwards.

"I don't know that much about Force Bonds." Mom shakes her head. "I do not believe that it was fully an accident that this bond between the two of you was made. If I have learned anything in the past fifty-three years, it's that nothing happens by accident. While it may have been an accident on your part; this bond was meant to occur. I suggest that you strengthen it, use it to your advantage."

"Why?"

"Because the two of you can strengthen each other."

-oOo-

"You ready?" Rey asks, bouncing on her toes.

"Hell yes." It's been weeks since I've been able to do basically any amount of physical training. This spar is exactly what I need. "Don't go easy on me."

"Wasn't planning on it." She swings at my side, and there we go. It's an incredible fight, but I know she's holding back some. Part of me's angry with that, but the other part doesn't want the other side of my face cut, so…

"Good, Rey!" I'm trying to encourage her, ever since _it_ happened she's been wary of me, afraid. Afraid of the awkwardness or of me, I'm not sure which. There's no real field for us to practice on here, so we've been relegated to the gym. It's riskier to the equipment, but we don't have anywhere else.

I decide to show off. I Force jump and flip and do all of the overly dramatic things I can. When I jump over her and flip three times she starts laughing. "This is what being a Jedi does for you?"

"Seem worth it now?"

"You can basically fly." Her grin spreads all the way across her face.

"Not quite." I strike again, and she easily dodges. We fight for several minutes before being rudely interrupted.

"General Solo, your father is here. Sergeant Rosaceae, they requested your presence as well. They're on landing pad BD." A pilot stands awkwardly in the doorway.

"Okay, we're coming." I shut off my lightsaber. We're going to be sweaty messes, but we're coming. It's been almost two months.

Uncle Chewie is placing large crates onto ground speeders when we arrive, Dad and Mom are talking near the loading ramp of the Falcon, and Threepio is being himself.

"Good to see that you've decided to stick around, kid," Dad says once Rey and I are in view. "What changed your mind?"

"I'm not sure what exactly did it, but I'm staying."

"Good to hear." He then turns to me. "She really did a number on your face, Ben."

"Yeah, yeah she did." I don't know what else to say.

"I didn't mean to."

"Leia already explained, don't worry Rey. I heard that you two and your ex-stormtrooper are heroes now."

"Also, the flight crews who actually destroyed the thing," I add. "We left before the fighting was even over."

"You still went on that damn planet." Please don't tell the Death Star story. "Come on, let's go get something to eat, I'm starved. Chewie!"

-oOo-

Lunch was uneventful. A lot of people stopped by to greet Dad, but otherwise, nothing really happened. But then my parents asked to speak with me in private. I know where this is going, but I can't stop them.

"Ben, what did I tell you to do?" Dad asks, disappointed.

"You've told me to do a great many things over the course of my lifetime."

"Ben."

"You told me to tell her that I like her if I do."

"And what did you do instead?" Please don't do this. I am not a child who broke a rule.

"We're not doing this." I stand up, but a glare from Mom has me sitting down again.

"Ben, don't do this to yourself. If you don't care about your own feelings, don't do it to her. She's spent her entire life waiting for her family to return to her, don't make her wait for you, too." Mom reminds me.

"We don't have time for this. We're still in the middle of a war, we still have responsibilities."

"So, did we." NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

"Please don't." Please.

"We won't, Ben, but please. It's not good for either of you." Dad shifts forwards, resting his forearms on his legs.

"You've always been so lonely. To a great extent that is our fault. We're sorry for that. But you don't have to be lonely anymore. You have Poe and now Finn and Rey. We want you to be happy, Ben. This war doesn't make you happy, it makes no one happy. When you find something or in this case someone who makes you happy, you need to keep them close. At times they may be the only thing that keeps you sane." Something feels weird inside my head.

 _Ben, are you okay? Something feels off._

 **I'm fine, Rey. My parents have just decided to have an awful conversation with me.**

 _Okay. I'm sorry about that._

 **It's fine.**

"Ben?"

"It was Rey, wasn't it?" The corner of Mom's lips lifts in a smirk.

"Yes, it was. Apparently, I was projecting enough for her to sense that something was off."

"What's going on?" Did Mom not tell him?

"They have unintentionally created a Force Bond. They can sense each other much easier and easily communicate."

"That's fun."


	20. The Plot

**AN:**

 **Hello, lovelies. I don't own these characters. Maybe Ben will start being a grownup and admit that he likes a girl.**

 **Rey**

I feel awful.

I shouldn't have done that.

It was private, and I intruded.

But he was projecting so much.

I couldn't help myself.

I had to know, I had to know.

I ruined it when I pushed a little too hard, and he noticed. I panicked. I had to say something, to justify my being in his head. I didn't lie, he did feel off…

If anyone's lying it's him.

Lying to himself and to me.

"Rose?"

"Yeah?" She looks up from her datapad.

"Do you know anything about men?"

"Not really except they kind of suck." She looks back at her pad.

"That they do."

"Why?" She puts the pad on our shared bedside table.

"Ben's parents are talking to him about me."

"What? How do you…. oh, it's that bond thing?" I nod. "Oh."

"They're telling him that he needs to stop pretending like he doesn't feel anything for me. They're telling him that he deserves to be happy."

"With you?" I nod.

"Do you think that he's going to do anything?"

"You know what happened last time." She eventually got me to spill everything that happened to her.

"You could always make the first move. There's no rule saying that he has to."

"But he denied it last time. He pushed me away. Whether he feels something or not, he regretted kissing me."

"Do you know why he regretted it?"

"I know what he told me, but I don't really believe it."

"I don't trust him to make the first real move, he's too calculated and over-thinking for that. If your relationship with him is going to go any farther, then you're going to have to do something about it." She cocks her head to the side.

"Like what?"

"Have you tried flirting with him?"

"Not intentionally."

"You should, I bet he'd be all flustered and have no idea how to react." That's nice.

"What exactly do I do? There weren't many people to flirt with on Jakku."

-oOo-

 **Rose (yeah)**

"Poe! I need your help."

"What?" The pilot stops in the middle of the hallway and turns back to me.

"Do you have time to talk, also do you know where Finn is?"

"I've got time. Um…he's probably working right now. He works with intelligence." Being a Stormtrooper on Starkiller probably caused that.

"Okay, but our friends need some work, and they're not going to be able to do it by themselves."

"Ben and Rey?" I nod. "Good, I've been debating whether or not to start scheming yet."

"I think it's time. It's been nearly a month since Starkiller, they need to get moving." Please.

"I've actually got a few ideas in mind."

"How long have you been thinking about this?"

"So long," he sighs, "Ben's almost thirty, yet he's never gone out with a girl on like a normal date. I've been waiting so long."

This is somewhat concerning.

"Do you think we should involve his mom? I think she would want to be involved."

"No, no. I am not going to talk to General Organa about setting up her son."

"She'd probably be okay with it, honestly."

"I know that she would, but I'm not talking to my commanding officer about that."

"Let's go find Finn. We have planning to do." Poe starts leading me to the intelligence office. "How long do we want to take? Are planning for another month? Two? How long?"

"The sooner the better. With everything happening with the war, they need the support of each other."

"So, let's aim for one, but have a plan for two?"

"Sounds good." I nod. "What ideas do you have to get them to move faster? They already spend all that time together training."

"They need to spend time together hanging out, learning about each other. If they continue to only spend time together when training, everything's gonna remain stagnant."

"We can't just tell them to hang out more."

"So, we set up times for a group to hang out, and then leave them alone."

"They'll see right through that." They are Force people after all.

"But what if they want to spend that time alone? We'll be giving them their much sought after excuse." True. "So, we'll need legitimate excuses on why we have to leave."

"I can always say that they need me in mechanics. They always need someone there."

"I guess I could just pull Finn out, claiming that I need to talk to him alone for a minute."

"How long should we leave them?"

"Until they decide that it's time to leave. I wasn't really planning on hanging around, they'd know we're there. Besides, BB8 can hack into the security cameras so we could monitor them."

"Isn't that wrong?"

"We're working hard, I want to see the fruits of our labor."


	21. The Plan

**AN:**

 **So, we have a conspiracy. Fun fact: I had a friend in high school who attempted to do something like this and failed miserably, thus I am glad that boy goes to a different college than me.**

 **I don't own** ** _Star Wars_** **.**

 **Poe**

"You wanna hang out with Finn, Rose, and Rey tonight?" My words are too fast to sound natural.

"Um…sure?" I'm concerned with the look on his face. He knows that something's up.

"Good. We're planning on meeting up for dinner at like six and then just finding somewhere to hang out." This is still suspicious sounding.

"Okay, whatever. I've got work to do."

Step one: done.

 **Rose**

"So, Finn, Poe and I were planning on hanging out tonight after dinner. You wanna come? _Ben_ might be there."

"When did you become buddies with them?" Rey doesn't look up from the holo she's working on.

"I do leave this room, remember?" She just waves a hand at me. "So, do you?"

"Sure, why not?"

Step two: complete.

I quickly message Poe and Finn.

Me: She's coming.

Poe: Good, so's he.

Me: This better work.

Finn: It'll work. Those two can barely keep their eyes off each other.

Me: Think about how much worse it'll be when they're actually a couple.

Finn: Are we sure that we want to do this?

Poe: Okay, you two haven't been around Ben for as long as me. We have to do this.

Me: Onwards to phase three!

-oOo-

Poe, Finn, and I made sure to arrive early to dinner so that we could situate ourselves to ensure that Ben and Rey sat together. The rectangular tables have three chairs on each side, so we awkwardly all sat on one side so that they had no choice. We also had one of the chairs on the other side "stolen" by another table.

It couldn't be more obvious if we put up signs.

And the look on Ben's face when he arrives just proves it.

He looks like a disappointed dad.

It's kind of funny.

"Poe."

"Yes." Ben just kind of blinks at him. "Is something wrong, Ben?"

"You suck."

"I'm doing it for you, Ben!"

"Shh." Finn points towards Rey entering the mess hall. She gives me a knowing look before taking her seat. I don't know how any of this is working, but it is so I'm just gonna keep my mouth shut. Clearly Poe and Ben have something going on, I'm working with Rey, and Finn, Poe, and I have our little conspiracy. We really could just cut out the middle man at this point, couldn't we?

No, they'd probably reject it and recede back into themselves if we tried to make them confess. Or, at least Ben would. It's so weird thinking of him as Ben, but if he's going to date my roommate, I gotta get used to it.

"What have y'all done today?" Poe asks, blowing on his soup.

"We trained for a couple hours this morning and then went to work. Same as always." Ben answers.

-oOo-

"Sorry guys, I gotta go. We're apparently down one at work." I try to look frantically at my datapad. "Sorry. I'll see you later."

I know that this isn't going to work, that Ben can see straight through the lies, but he doesn't stop me. I shove my datapad into my bag before running out of the room. I make it to the end of the hallway before I stop. Poe and Finn should be out here soon.

 **Rey**

I can say many nice things about my friends, but that they are subtle is not one of them.

Almost seconds after Rose leaves, Poe is dragging Finn out, talking about some very important, private conversation that they need to have right now.

They barely tried.

"They're all standing at the end of the hall." Ben looks over to me.

"I know."

"I can't believe that Poe is one of our chief strategists."

"Yet, here we are." Now what?

"You wanna go mess with them?"

"Oh yes."


	22. The Time to Act

**AN:**

 **Yeah, my friend that tried to set me up with a guy was also not subtle. Okay, I am aware that Rose has a sister (and I'm kind of amazed that no one has pointed this out to me), and that I'm sure some of you think that logically they should be roommates, but speaking as someone who has a sister and has had four non-sibling roommates, you don't want to room with your sister. People going to college soon: don't room with friends, it never ends well. I don't own** ** _Star Wars_** **.**

 **Only one chapter today, you'll see why tomorrow.**

 **Guest (Chapter 21): Thank you!**

 **Ben**

"So, what exactly should we do?" Rey scoots towards the couch arm and swings her legs to the middle section.

"We could just sneak up on them and ask what they're talking about." Sometimes the simplest plan is the best one. I look around the room and spot a security camera pointed right at us. "On the other hand, they are watching us as we speak."

"What?"

"BB8 can access the security cameras. They don't have any audio, but they have the visual." She follows my hand to see the camera. "I guess we could do something to exploit that."

"Like what?"

"I don't know."

"Well, that's helpful." She crosses her arms. "Especially considering the fact that it was your idea to mess with them in the first place."

"I hoped that you would have some ideas!"

Okay, what could we do?

We could still sneak up on them.

We could shut off the security camera and see how they react.

That's probably our best bet.

 _Yeah._

 **I keep forgetting that that's a thing that we have.**

 _Me, too. But sometimes your thoughts just kind of appear in my head._

 **Same here.**

I stick out my hand and shut off the security camera.

 **Now for a lesson in sneaking around. Jedi can go unseen if they wish to.**

 _How?_

 **Here.**

I stick out my hand, and she hesitantly takes it.

 **You're going to feel a little strange, but you'll get used to it.**

I lead her down the hallway, exerting my will over everyone so that we're unseen. Our um…friends are desperately trying to get the security holo working again.

 _Let's go right behind them, scare them._

 **Good thinking.**

They stand shoulder-to-shoulder around BB8. Poe is currently crouched down trying to see if he can fix it. I stand behind Poe and Rose, Rey stands behind Rose and Finn. I release her hand and my will over them. "What's going on?"

Finn jumps about two feet in the air.

Poe swears loudly and falls over.

Rose jumps but doesn't react as dramatically as the other two. "See, I told you."

"Next time you three decide to do something like this, perhaps do your spying a little farther away from us." Rey sinks her weight onto one hip and crosses her arms.

"Are you giving us permission for a next time?" Poe perks up.

"No." Rey and I say in unison.

"Though I am sure that isn't going to stop you."

"Probably not." Poe stands.

"Are we going to discuss why this occurred?" I raise an eyebrow. The three of them desperately shake their heads side to side.

-oOo-

"Why won't you just admit to her, Ben? You know you like her, you've got a pretty good idea that she likes you. If you would just stop being so bantha-headed, Rose, Finn, and I wouldn't have to resort to this."

"Because, Poe, what if it doesn't work? What if we fight? We can't escape each other. She's always in my head, there's no privacy anymore. And what if we fail at having a relationship? We're two of three known light Force users left in the universe. We can't ruin our alliance because we aren't compatible as romantic partners."

"But what if it does work? You would be happy, she would be happy. You are both relatively professional people, you could probably still work together afterward if you fail."

"She will still be in my head, Poe. The bond is not something that can ever be broken."

"Why do you think this bond formed? Why do you think that you've always been so drawn to her? Maybe you two are meant to be together. Maybe it's destiny. Isn't that a part of the Force?"

It is.

That's what upsets me.

He's right.

"We can't. It's too risky."

"Do you expect to spend the rest of your life alone, Ben?"

"Maybe."

"Do you expect her to?"

"No. She won't be alone ever again." She shouldn't be.

"Can you stomach watching her meet and fall in love with someone else? She will still be in your head, you'll have to bear witness to her every thought and feeling about them. Can you handle that?" No.

"I don't care about my suffering as long as she's happy. I don't think I could make her happy."

"Why not?" He sits down on the floor next to me. "Maybe putting it in words will help."

"I'm afraid. I'm afraid of getting attached to her, to anyone. I'm afraid that this war will take them away from me. I'm afraid of her rejection. I'm just afraid, Poe."

"Have you thought that maybe she is, too? That she's afraid of your rejection? You already pushed her away once, Ben. She isn't going to hang around forever, waiting for you to grow up. If you don't change your attitude, she'll be gone. She's a great girl that many of the pilots have expressed interest in. I've tried to quiet them, but that doesn't mean their thoughts changed. She's one of the heroes of Starkiller, she's a future Jedi, she's talented, beautiful, smart, mysterious. Most people would kill to be in your position." He sighs, exasperated. "Do you not realize how lucky you are?"

"I know."

"Then do something about it."

"And how exactly do you propose I do that? I have already pushed her away once, claimed that kissing her meant nothing to me, and promised to forget that it ever happened. Just walk up to her and say that I lied, that I was running from my feelings? Tell her that I've lied to myself for almost two months? Poe, I fucked it all up already."

"Just tell her. She'll understand, she knows what you're like. Apologize to her." He implores. "Just talk to her about it."

"This isn't going to go well." I'm not exactly the most eloquent person.

"But you have to try."

"After training tomorrow, I'll try." I hope.


	23. The Question

**AN:**

 **Hello. So, I have a question. When Ben goes through his inevitable redemption, what are we gonna call Reylo? Kylo won't be his name anymore. I guess we could call them "Ren", but that's a bit too on the nose for me. I guess "Bey". I don't know. I don't own** ** _Star Wars_** **. Only one chapter today.**

 **Guest (Chapter 22): Come on, Ben!**

 **Ben**

"We'll do one more round today and be done." She nods and starts to get in a ready position, but I don't give her time. I strike quickly, and she's ready for me. "Good."

Our sabers are crossed between us and we desperately push at each other. I tower over her, but she uses this to her advantage. She is able to duck under our crossed sabers and ends up behind me. She's lucky we aren't actually fighting, or I would have turned my saber so that my cross guard got her.

She smirks at me, and I twirl my saber in response. I take the offensive and strike once, twice, thrice at her. She's backing up, getting closer and closer to the wall. I can trap her there. She takes a jab at my ribs, but I easily catch it. She uses this distraction to push me back using the Force. I'm only thrown about a foot, but it gives her the opportunity to take initiative. Now I'm the one being backed up.

I look across the open gym, searching for something to use to my advantage. I turn so that we're walking the long ways of the gym instead of the short. Our lightsabers get crossed between us once again after a particularly hard downwards strike and my breathing is getting heavy. We push as hard as we can, attempting to knock each other over. My stance is wide, one foot almost right in-between hers. It's a dirty trick, but her opponents probably won't fight clean. I hook my foot around her ankle and pull hard enough to knock her to the ground.

I push her saber away and straddle her. My left-hand grabs her wrists and pins them above her head while my right holds my saber just to the side of her. "Concede."

Rey doesn't respond, just closes her eyes. Suddenly my saber is switched off, and Rey uses my shock to knock me off of her and grab her own saber, swapping our positions from before. "Concede."

"How did you…?" Why have I never thought of that before? Just turn it off, we can do a million things with the Force, that should be a given. So, I follow her lead and shut off her saber. "We can't just do this for like an hour."

"Agreed."

"How about we both get up, promise not to switch the sabers off anymore, and spar properly?"

"Of course, the one of us currently pinned to the ground would want to start over." She rolls her eyes. I use my bodyweight to roll us over again so that I'm on top of her.

"What about now?"

"Fine." She pouts. I stand and offer her a hand up, which she takes. We each call our sabers back to us and begin again.

We spar properly for several minutes before I am able to pin her with her back against a wall. We're both exhausted, chests heaving, breathing desperate. "Concede."

Her jaw clenches, but her lightsaber is half a gym away, her hands are pinned, and we agreed to no more shutting off of lightsabers. "Fine."

I hear her, my brain recognizes the sound of her voice, but it ignores that her word implies "You can let go now" because I am focused on her. I'm focused on her eyes, her nose, her hair, her skin, her lips. She isn't struggling with my grip, so I assume my closeness is not unwanted.

You never really see how many colors make up a person's eyes until you're so close. I'm close enough to feel her breath fan across the lower part of my face. I see each bead of sweat as it rolls down her forehead. I release my lightsaber, attaching it to my belt and gently wipe away a droplet of sweat before it gets too close to her eye. She blinks rapidly at that.

I release her hands but don't back away, and she makes no attempt to escape.

"Rey." I murmur. She blinks slowly.

"Ben."

Part of me (most of me) wants to grab her and kiss her right then and there. Between our closeness, heavy breathing, and the slight roughness of her voice due to the lack of breath…she made my name sound flat-out erotic. If only the celibate Jedi Master I was named after could see me now.

I raise my left hand to her jawline and gently elevate her chin, so I can look her in the eye easier, not that I really look at her eyes. I stare at her parted lips and begin to lean closer to her. My eyes shut, and-

"Ben!" That was not what I want to hear. That is not how or by whom I want my name said right now. "Rey!"

I step away from Rey and turn to see Poe, Finn, and Rose near the door to the gym. "What?"

"No need to get angry." Poe laughs. "We just heard that you two had commandeered the gym for your Jedi training and wanted to watch."

"We're finished for today."

"Not even a little sparring?" Finn asks. Rose stands quietly at Finn's side, uncertain about her place in this friend group. "We were told that it was incredible."

I turn to Rey, to see how she's doing, but her hand is reached out. Uncle Luke's/Grandfather's/her lightsaber flies into her hand, and she ignites it. She looks as if nothing happened. "I could go all day."

Our friends cheer and go towards the bench set up along the wall. "If anything goes poorly, run."

-oOo-

"You knew." I hiss at Poe. "You knew what was happening, but you stormed in anyways."

"Did you seriously want your first kiss with her to be in the gym while you were sweating, exhausted, and had just had a lightsaber pointed at her throat? I was saving you, so you could do that properly. Besides, you two have a thing to discuss before any of that stuff happens." He reasons.

"You hacked into the security cameras."

"Actually, BB8 did. He projected the fighting to us for a while. You two were insane. When you two were rolling on the ground, turning each other's lightsabers off, we laughed our asses off. I can't believe that wasn't a common thought. You would think that the wise Jedi would think of that." Poe ponders.

"And how exactly do you suggest I get into another situation where I could kiss her? Since you ruined my opportunity today, you should help me with this." I reason, sitting in my desk chair.

"You could ask her on a date."

"To where exactly?" There is nothing here!

"Take her out to the forest, she loves nature. There you could explain all the flora and fauna to her. Pick a flower, put it in her hair, kiss her then. Be corny, she doesn't know that it's cliché, they didn't have plants on Jakku." Good observations there, Poe.

"How do I ask?" I haven't really ever asked a girl on a date. I was always either with Uncle Luke (there was no dating when Uncle Luke was around) or I've been working on the Resistance. Sure, Poe has dragged me on "double dates" a few times, but I was not a willing participant.

"Go up to her and say, 'Hey, Rey. I was wondering if you would like to go for a walk in the forest with me.'" You know what Poe, that sounds really easy, but also there is no way I'll be able to make it sound casual. "Or you could just sit there and mope and die alone."

"The second option sounds easier."

-oOo-

I'm standing outside of Rose and Rey's door. I know that Rey is alone, I can't sense Rose anywhere. I turn to a very anxious Poe who's standing at the end of the hallway. He smiles and presents me with a thumb up of encouragement.

I don't want to do this.

Well, I do, but my fear of rejection is screaming right now.

She didn't push me away before.

She didn't push me away before.

She was okay with what was happening before.

She'll be okay with it now.

I hesitantly raise my hand and knock twice on the door.

"Come in, Ben." Her voice calls. I press the button, and the door slides to the right. "I wondered how long it would take for you to knock."

"You could sense me. Good." She sits at the foot of her bed, hair wet from her shower but still in her signature three buns.

"Was that a test? Seeing if I could figure out that it was you? Cause if so, I know Poe is standing down the hall."

"No, no, I came to ask you something."

"Oh?" She cocks her head to the side before patting some room next to her on the bed. "Is something wrong? Why was Poe waiting with you?"

"No, nothing's wrong." I take my seat and ignore her last question. "I just was wondering whether or not you would like to go for a walk with me in the forest tomorrow afternoon." I squeeze my eyes shut, not ready to see her amusement.

"Tomorrow afternoon." I crack my eyes open to see her chewing on her bottom lip. "I think that I don't have anything going on then."

"So…is that a yes?" Please.

"Yes, I would love to go for a walk in the forest with you tomorrow afternoon."


	24. The Walk in the Woods

**AN:**

 **REYLO DATE TIME! Y'all it's fucking snowing. I live in a place where it does not normally snow. This is weird. I am not Lucasfilm.**

 **Guest (Chapter 23): Supportive Mom Friend Poe.**

 **Rey**

I shouldn't have told Finn and Rose. Rose was freaking out about how I need to look "more presentable", which excuse you. Finn was…well I sensed some disappointment in him.

Also, apparently someone told Leia.

Because the General showed up at my room this morning to talk to me, privately. Rose was told that she could come back in around twenty minutes.

"How are you feeling, Rey?"

"I'm fine."

"Poe told me that you and Ben are going for a walk in the forest later today."

"We are."

"Does this have something to do with your training?"

"He didn't say." Does it? I didn't think it did.

"I just need to know what's going on for security reasons. The last thing we need is someone mistaking two figures in the forest for First Order." Yeah, that's why.

"All I know is that he's going to come by later and show me around the forest."

"That will be nice. The forests here are lovely, and I am upset that I don't get to go see them more. They remind me quite a bit of the Forest Moon of Endor."

"I have no memory of being in a forest like that."

"Well, I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself. Though, I do suggest wearing a sturdier pair of shoes, with all the rain there is quite a bit of mud."

"Will do, General." Please stop.

"Well, even on my 'days off' I have quite a bit to do. I will speak with you later, Rey. Have fun." The general stands and leaves my room. Why? Why did this occur? Okay, I know why it happened, but that doesn't mean that I don't wish it hadn't.

-oOo-

Knock, knock, knock.

"Come in!" The door slides open to reveal Ben Solo.

"You really should lock your door." He comments.

"Whenever we're in here, we don't feel the need. A thief would have one Hell of a time stealing from us while we're in the room." I rise from my bed and walk over to him. He isn't dressed any different from how he is on a normal day, dark shirt and neutral colored pants, but it feels different. Maybe it's just that I'm finally allowing myself to look.

"I guess so."

"You changed your hair."

"Rose made me." I look over at my roommate who's sitting on her bed. She gives me a thumb up with a goofy smile. She told me that I couldn't wear my hair in my normal way for this "date" to make it special I needed to change it up. I was not about to wear my hair down like she wanted, but she wasn't going to let me wear it up. So, we compromised and it's half up half down. The half up part is in a small bun.

"I like it." My cheeks heat up, and I look down at my feet.

"Thank you."

"Shall we go?" He offers me his right hand. I smile at him before taking it. He slips his fingers between mine and leads me out of the room. Rose says something as the door closes behind us, but I can't make sense of it.

"Does this have something to do with training?" He stops dead in his tracks.

"No, no it doesn't." He's somehow paler than he was a few moments ago. "Did you think that it was when you accepted?" He doesn't let go of my hand, but his left-hand clenches into a fist.

"No, but your mother came by this morning and asked." He relaxes instantly before tensing again.

"Why did my mother come by this morning?" I start walking again, prompting him to move so that we don't block traffic in the hallway.

"Well, she said that it was for safety. We don't need someone mistaking us for First Order or something, and shoot us. I know that's not why she came, I could sense her excitement from a mile away." It certainly didn't help that she's Force-sensitive, making all of her emotions stronger.

"Did she say who told her?" Wait, you didn't?

"Poe. Did you not tell her?"

"I'm almost thirty, I don't need to ask my mom's permission to go on a date." Our cheeks heat up at the same time, neither of us have referred to it as a "date" yet. The only people who have called it that with me are Finn and Rose.

"No, I guess not."

"I'm sorry that she did that." His face is still very red. Even if it wasn't, embarrassment radiates off of him.

We turn a corner and BB8 seems to be waiting for us.

They beep at us, "Where are you going?"

"We're going for a walk." Ben looks annoyed with the droid.

"Can I come?" BB8 bleeps happily.

"No." BB8 beeps again and looks at the ground, sad. "It isn't anything against you, BB8, but I know how Poe is. He asked you to come with us, didn't he?" The droid slowly nods, I guess. "You're recording everything and sending it to his pad, aren't you?" Sad nod. "He needs to stop with the spying. They did yesterday at the gym…that's why they came bursting in when they did."

To stop us. Does Poe not approve of me? Does he think I'm not worthy of his friend? Poe has never acted rudely to me, he's always been nice. Why did he stop us if he doesn't have a problem with me? And Finn and Rose were there, too. Rose knows that I like Ben and have. She said that she'd help me? Why did they stop us?

I was so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I didn't notice that we're outside. Several people call to us as we pass, one person even whistles. Ben largely ignores them and walks us straight into the forest. It's humid, something I'm still getting used to. I sometimes miss the dryness of Jakku, at least I'm used to it. "How are you?"

"I'm fine. How are you?"

"I'm fine." Please, let's not do this. "Are you enjoying your job?"

"Yes, I am, thank you." I step over a fallen log. This forest is lovely, I've never been somewhere so full of life. Our conversation dies as I look around. It isn't awkward or uncomfortable, it's nice. We don't feel the need to fill the air with conversation, we can just enjoy being together.

I can sense almost everything. It's almost too much with the amount of life here. I hear the faint rush of water, the slight panic of the animals once they spot us. I stop at almost every plant, trying to figure out what species it is. Luckily, Ben had the foresight to bring his pad, so we can go through the plant registry and identify them. Eventually, he gives up on trying to keep up with me and just watches as I search around.

"Rey," Ben calls.

"Yes?" I turn to see him leaning over, looking at a tree with low-hanging branches.

"Come here." I walk over and see what he's looking at, a bird's nest holding six baby birds. I gasp slightly. They're so cute. Ben chuckles to himself and smiles at me. He silently takes the pad as I watch the gray/blue birds chirp. "Sialia Sialis, commonly known as the bluebird."

"They're cute." I stare a little while longer.

"We should probably leave them alone, so their mom can come back and feed them." He gently takes my hand and leads me away. Once we're a suitable distance away, I stop, and he turns to me confused. I pull on his arm and stand on my toes to kiss his cheek. Before my lips even leave his skin, I can feel his face heating up.

"Thank you."

"No, no problem." He coughs to clear his throat. Seeing him, the usually stoic Lieutenant General Ben Solo, all flustered is kind of the best thing I've seen in a long time.

If he's this red from a kiss on the cheek, his head might explode from-never mind.

"Rey?"

"Yes?" I had started to walk towards something else but turn back to look at him. He steps towards me so that we're mere inches apart. There's an intensity in his eyes that I've only ever seen in battle. He takes my hand in his again and brushes back a piece of my hair.

"I'm sorry about what I said after Starkiller. I…I was lying to you and myself. I didn't want to believe that I liked you as anything more than a friend. I was running from my feelings for you. I still do regret that that was the first time I kissed you, but I don't regret doing it, if that makes any sense. If you are still upset with me about that or something else I've done, I understand."

His hand drops back to his side, and he takes a step back. His anxiety is getting to him.

So, I close the gap between us. Our chests are practically touching, and if he was closer to my height, we would be eye-to-eye. I'm quite certain he can feel the pounding of my heart against his chest because I certainly can feel his. I reach up to his jaw with my right hand and pull his face down towards mine. His dark eyes go wide for a second before closing as our lips meet.

It isn't what I expected.

It's different from last time which was all sloppy and excitement.

It isn't like those romance holos I scavenged on Jakku, an earth-moving moment.

But it's warm and gentle.

And that's more than enough.


	25. The Interrogation

**AN:**

 **Took long enough, didn't I? I am not the owner of any of these characters.**

 **Poe**

"We can't follow them. They're Force people, they'll sense us." I argue. "Ben can sense someone from miles away."

"But we have to know!" Rose argues.

"You really should've just had BB8 follow them without permission." Finn states.

"He can't make it on that ground stealthily."

"So, what do we do?" Rose asks.

"I guess we just have to sit here and wait for them to come back." I look at the blank pad.

"And interrogate them once they get here? You know that they won't tell us anything." Finn scowls. I can't believe how calm he is being about all of this. I know he's kind of liked Rey since they met, I'd be blind not to notice, though apparently, she hasn't.

"Well, I know I can get Ben to tell me. I may not be a Jedi, but I can be extremely persuasive. If you two can get Rey to tell you, then we can compare stories."

"It'll be hard, Rey doesn't want to open up about much."

"Who knows, maybe she's different when it comes to this sort of thing." Finn shrugs. We sit in silence for a few minutes, staring at the wall.

"You think he's done it yet?" Rose wonders aloud.

"No." I shake my head, we're relying on Rey to do this.

"You think she's done it yet?"

"Yes." Finn and I say together.

-oOo-

 **Ben**

Rey and I didn't stay in the forest for too much longer after that. It was starting to get dark and the Resistance Base has a curfew: everyone has to be on base, inside by sunset. Can't have the General's son and Lieutenant General in his own right breaking curfew to make out with a Sergeant.

That would be bad.

Her room is much closer than mine, so I'm dropping her off. No one is in the hallway, but I know that Rose and Finn are waiting for her, even if I couldn't use the Force to sense them. So, we say goodnight in the hallway. "I had fun today."

"So, did I." She smiles. "We'll have to do it again some time."

"Yes, we will." I tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear before tilting her chin up and kissing her. Her arms wrap around my neck, and mine go around her waist, pulling her closer to me. It's just a few simple pecks, it's a goodnight, a goodbye for now. My forehead rests on hers as my eyes lazily open. "Goodnight, Rey."

"Goodnight, Ben." She kisses me one last time before entering her room. For the brief moment that the door is open as she slips through, I see Rose and Finn sitting patiently, waiting to drag every detail out of Rey.

And I know that Poe is in my room, waiting to do the same. I sigh, raking my fingers through my hair. I look around the empty hallway and-shit. There's a security camera right there, pointed directly at where Rey and I just were. And Poe has a droid. Poe probably saw that, and even if he didn't, the security monitors certainly did. Shit.

I quickly walk out of that hallways and towards my room. I might as well get the interrogation with Poe over with.

"So…" He wiggles his eyebrows at me as I enter.

"So."

"How was the date?"

"Fine." I kick off my boots.

"Just fine?"

"It was good."

"Just good?"

"I'm not doing this, Poe." I sigh. "What do you want to know?"

"Did you do it? Did you kiss her?"

"Yes." Poe throws his arms in the air, and BB8 beeps happily at me.

"You need to give me a play-by-play."

"No."

"Why not?" The thirty-two-year-old man pouts.

"Because some things are meant to stay private, despite what you, Finn, and Rose seem to believe." I lean against the wall with my arms crossed. "I assume you were able to get into the security cameras in Rey's hall."

"What kind of friend do you take me for?" He scoffs, mockingly offended. I give him an unamused look. "Fine, yeah I did."

"What exactly did you see?"

"Just two people making out in a hallway."

"It wasn't making out." I snap.

"Fine, kissing in a hallway, in public, where anyone could stumble across them."

"Your other spies were in her room. We preferred to say goodbye with a possible audience rather than a confirmed one."

"I guess." He shrugs.

"You told my mother."

"Yes, she needed to know, and you didn't tell her."

"She went to Rey this morning to talk to her about our plans."

"I am so sorry, I did not mean for that to happen." His eyes grow wide.

"So next time, I suggest keeping quiet."

"There will be a next time?"

"I hope so."


	26. The Various Reactions

**AN:**

 **Hello. I do not own** ** _Star Wars_** **. Please review! I want to hear more from you guys.**

 **Rey**

Rose and Finn didn't waste any time.

"How did it go?"

"Did you see anything cool?"

"Was he polite?"

"Were there any interesting animals?"

"Was he actually personable?"

"How about plants?"

"Did he kiss you?"

"Any interesting landmarks?"

"Did you kiss him?"

"STOP!" I yell. "That's enough."

"So…did he?" I glare at Rose.

"Yes." Rose begins celebrating.

"I can't believe he has actual emotions! This is incredible!"

"He isn't as bad as you think, Rose."

"Not to you, obviously. The rest of us know practically nothing about him other than he scares the shit out of us." She rocks excitedly back and forth. "You have to tell me everything."

"I'll tell you, but I reserve the right to leave out certain details and not answer questions that I don't want to. Deal?"

"Deal." Finn and Rose say together.

"So, first we came across your spy droid. Thanks for that."

"BB8 is Poe's!" Finn argues.

"I know that he was in here with you two. You know damn well that your little conspiracy isn't a secret. Anyways, we then went outside and into the woods. We didn't really talk much, and I just explored, looking up all the plants and animals on his datapad. Then he found a nest of baby birds."

"What kind of birds?" Finn interrupts.

"Bluebirds." They don't say more. "He said that we should leave them alone so that their mom could come back and feed them, and then it happened." I shrug.

"That's it?" Rose asks, disappointed.

"Yeah, what were you expecting?"

"I don't know something grander, I guess." She chews on her bottom lip for a second. "So, was it good?"

"I am using my right here."

"That means no." Rose leans over to Finn and "whispers".

"I hate you."

"Yeah, but you're stuck living with me for a while." She smiles. "Was it long? Short? Did he know what he was doing because he doesn't really seem like the type of guy to go on many dates?"

"I don't know." It was my first _real_ kiss since we decided to forget the one after Starkiller. There isn't exactly anyone on Jakku that I wanted within three feet of me, let alone closer. "It was nice. Are you satisfied?"

"Did you kiss him, or did he kiss you the first time?"

"I kissed him."

"I knew it. We were gonna bet, but we all thought that you would be first, so…not much of a bet." Finn explains.

"It's nice to know that my relationship with Ben is a sport to you."

"We kid because we care."

-oOo-

I don't know why I didn't realize that everything was going to change once Ben and I started a romantic relationship.

But when we went to lunch the next day, several people stopped us to give us…advice, I guess. Their thoughts on the subject? I don't really know. How do they know? Did someone just tell everyone they saw? I guess rumors spread fast here.

"Remember that the security cameras are everywhere."

"General Solo, how would your mother react?"

"Make sure to wrap it up first!" ?

"Isn't it against the Jedi Code to have relationships?"

That last one caught me off guard. Ben had never mentioned the Jedi having oaths of celibacy.

"It's an old tradition, one the Uncle Luke decided not to enforce because, in the end, it's what caused Darth Vader to happen."

"Really?"

"He fell in love with my grandmother, but he wasn't allowed to be with her. However, they married in secret and had twins. You can guess who they are. Basically, Anakin had visions of grandmother dying in childbirth and it drove him to align himself with the Emperor to save her, but in the end, he killed her."

"That's horrible." How? How did he? How did he turn from doing everything to save her to being her demise?

"Uncle Luke believes that had he been allowed to have attachments, to marry, to even visit his mother it all could have been avoided." He rakes his fingers through his dark hair. "Well, this got depressing fast."

"Yeah, it did." I breathily laugh.

"Come on, I'm hungry." He drags me towards the mess hall. His legs are too much longer than mine.

Poe whistles at us as soon as we enter the mess hall. This prompts everyone present to turn to us and stare. Ben quickly turns back into "General Solo", straightening his back and keeping his expression neutral, which makes everyone turn away. That must be a nice skill to have. However, he seems like he's going to stay "General Solo". This is going to be a hard thing to balance.

 _Ben._

 **Sorry.**

He somewhat drops out of his authoritarian stance.

 _Thank you._

-oOo-

Dating on a military base is hard.

1\. There's people everywhere.

2\. Even if you get away from the people, there's security cameras everywhere.

3\. I have a roommate.

4\. There are no public spaces to just hang out.

5\. We're kind of stuck hanging out in his room.

6\. The only seating is his bed and a desk chair.

Which is really presumptuous. I'M NOT EXPECTING ANYTHING TO HAPPEN! But, our friends aren't going to shut up about it. "Has my mother talked to you since last time?"

"No."

"She talked to me."

"Well I would hope so, she is your mother." I lean my head against his shoulder.

"She told me that she's proud of me and wants us to be happy."

"I am happy." I really am.

"So am I." He gently takes my chin in his hand and press his mouth to mine. His hands move to my waist as mine go to his neck. He practically pulls me into his lap, never releasing me.

I have no clue what I'm doing, but his emotions aren't conveying anything negative, so I must be doing fine.

It's strange feeling both his emotions and my own during a moment like this. I feel twice the thrill, the excitement, the dopamine, the lust…

My fingers twist through his long, dark hair.

Then the force-damned fire alarm goes off. "Kriff."

"Why?" WHY?!

"Someone knew." He seethes. I quickly get off of him. He pats down his hair, trying to hide the evidence of what we were doing. I'm pissed. He's pissed. Someone's going to die.

 **When you can't figure out how to end the kissing scene, so you tap into your past four years in a dorm building and set off the fire alarm.**


	27. The Worlds Beyond

**AN:**

 **Hello. I don't really know where I'm going with this story, but we shall see. I don't own** ** _Star Wars_** **. Y'all see all that fake spoiler shit? Wow. That was a rollercoaster.**

 **Hanshotfirst: Yeah, I noticed in TFA that many characters did speak in a rather modern way, like Poe when he first meets Kylo.**

 **Rey**

It's been three weeks.

Three weeks of Ben and I being accused of claiming the gym to make out (definitely not train like we've been doing for months).

Three weeks of Poe making us as awkward as possible.

Three weeks of Leia acting like my mom. Which is fine. It's fine. It's actually kind of nice. She hugs me whenever she sees me, makes sure that I'm eating well and getting enough sleep. Finn's started making fun of me for it, but I don't really care.

It's also been three weeks since Ben and I started going on walks through the forest. Every week we've gone out to explore. It's nice, quiet. Ben claims that part of the Jedi training is communing with nature (apparently animal friendship is a skill that the Jedi have), so that's his excuse to everyone who asks.

 _Ben?_

 **Yes?**

 _What exactly is the next move against the First Order?_

 **We're trying to figure out their new central base. Since Starkiller, they've been spread. All of their important personnel have been scattered through the systems. It's just a matter of finding them.**

 _Oh._

 **It doesn't matter right now. Please? Can we have an hour without the war?**

His dark eyes plead with me.

 _Yes._

His shoulders sag in relief. He takes a step closer to me and rests his forehead on my shoulder.

 **I'm just so tired, Rey.**

 _I know, Ben._

I gently comb my fingers through his hair. He gently nuzzles my neck with his nose.

 **Is this ever going to end?**

 _Someday._

 **Will we be alive to see it?**

Will we? I don't know.

 _I hope so._

 **That's not the optimistic Rey I know.**

 _The optimistic Rey was away from this war. All she had to cling to was hope._

 **And what about this Rey?**

 _She has a lot more. She has friends, food, you._

We stand there in silence (both physical and mental) for who knows how long, just holding each other.

 **When this war is over, we're going to explore the universe. How does that sound?**

 _Incredible._

 **There are so many places I want to show you, so many different ecosystems and animals. We can go to Naboo, Coruscant, Felucia, Yavin, Bespin if you don't mind the cold, Hoth, so many others. We could go see them all.**

 _Tell me about them._

 **How about I show you?**

 _What?_

 **Close your eyes and focus on me.**

Not like it's hard.

 **I heard that.**

One of his hands lifts to the side of my face and I'm teleported.

It's freezing.

 _I thought that this was just a mental image._

 **Doesn't matter, it's cold enough here to freeze your memories.**

 _Where are we?_

 **Hoth. There's an old Rebel base here. My parents brought me once when I was a kid. I don't really remember why.**

 _Can we please move on? I've lived in the desert my entire life._

 **Okay.**

We're transported to a strange place filled with giant…I don't know, some sort of plant.

 _It's beautiful. All the colors…What are these?_

 **It's weird but beautiful. They're fungi, like mushrooms.**

 _Where to next?_

 **You're ready to move on so soon?**

 _I don't want to spoil it all for when we visit._

The look in his eye tells me that he doesn't think that we'll make it that far, but he doesn't say anything and transports us to the next planet.

 **Coruscant. The entire planet is one big city.**

 _The entire thing?_

 **Yep. There isn't a quarter mile left without city.**

 _Wow._

All the flashing lights and people and smells.

 **You could easily spend your entire life here and not see one-twentieth of the city. Ready to go?**

 _Yes._

We're transported to the most beautiful meadow I ever saw.

 **Naboo. This is where my grandmother was from. She was once Queen of Naboo and later Senator. She was adored.**

 _They must love your family._

 **My mother and I, they do. They seem to feel that Dad is a bit beneath Mom, which he is by most standards. Uncle Luke, I don't know if he ever came here. We'll have to avoid the oceans when we visit.**

 _Why?_

 **Gungans. There's this underwater race that just…their existence upsets me, alright?**

 _What did they do to you?_

 **Basically, they're gross, annoying, and never shut up.**

 _This place is incredible. There's so much green and life. I could just stand here forever._

 **I wish we could.**

His arms wrap around me from behind as we overlook the meadow and lake.

 _What did you do when you visited here?_

 **Well, in this meadow specifically I have a very clear memory of picnicking with my parents. It was one of the few times we were all together. I was maybe six years old. We ate sandwiches on blankets and Mom made a daisy chain and put it over my head. It didn't quite fit, so it sat on top of my head like a crown. She kept calling me her "little prince". I asked her to teach me how to make them and then made one for her and dad. So, there's a ridiculous holo somewhere from a security droid of the three of us sitting in the meadow wearing crowns made out of flowers.**

 _Could you teach me?_

 **I'm sure I can.**


	28. The Figure in the Shadows

**AN:**

 **Hello. I don't own these characters.**

 **Ben**

 _No._

 _No._

 _"Ben Solo."_

 _Stay away from me._

 _"You cannot resist the temptation."_

 _Like Hell, I will._

 _"Think of everything you could have. You could rule over the Galaxy like an Emperor. That little scavenger girl could be your Queen."_

 _Get out of my head._

 _"You could be stronger than them all, Ben. You could be stronger than your father, your uncle, your grandfather."_

 _I am strong, strong enough to resist you._

 _"No, you are not. You are weak like your father. The father who is always missing. He's missed almost every important moment in your life. He doesn't care about you. Even now, when you were so close to becoming strong, and they thought that they had almost lost you, he's still never here. If he cares for you so much, he should be with you."_

 _ENOUGH!_

"Ben?"

I shoot up out of bed, almost hitting Mom in the process.

"Ben, you're alright. You're here, you're with the Resistance. You're home." She gently pulls me into her chest, stroking my hair and calming me.

"Mom!" I gasp and hold tightly to her.

"It's happening again?" I nod. "We have to find Luke."

"You have to relocate me. I'm putting the entire Resistance in danger by being here. If he pinpoints my location, then it's all over."

"Ben, no…I almost lost you once, I'm not sending you away again."

"I can't stay. I can't risk everyone else."

"Where would you go?"

"I don't know."

"You're staying, Ben. I can't send you away now."

"But if he finds me."

"Then we'll relocate again." She takes my face in her small hands. "The last time I sent you away I almost lost you, I am never making that mistake again. We'll finish this conversation in the morning."

She kisses my brow like she did when I was a child waking up from these nightmares. Even now, as a fully-grown adult, it relaxes me. "You can't risk everyone else for me."

"We'll finish this conversation in the morning." She repeats. "Rey is in the hall. She was here when I got here, but she couldn't get in."

"Okay."

"Do you want to talk to her?"

"Yes."

"Okay. I will see you in the morning. Goodnight, Dear." She kisses my brow again.

"Goodnight, Mom." I watch as she exits the room and Rey nervously walks in. "Rey."

"Are you alright?" She takes a few steps forward but is still uncertain.

"It was just a nightmare, Rey."

"You do remember, Ben, that I can enter your dreams now. Who was that voice?" Kriff.

"That was Snoke, Supreme Leader of the First Order, trying to corrupt me again."

"Oh no." She walks over to my bed and sits down on the edge near my knee. "Is there anything we can do to stop it?"

"I don't think so. After _it_ happened, the destruction of the academy, after Uncle Luke left and I was home again, they stopped. Mom, Dad, and I figured that Snoke either saw me as incorruptible or he just lost track of me. Uncle Luke stopped on several different planets, taking several different ships to bring me home. He masked my presence with his own, forbade me from using the Force unless my life depended on it."

"And now you're using it to train me." No, Rey. "I did this. If you hadn't…if you hadn't used it so much to train me, then he wouldn't have found you. Our bond must just broadcast to every Force User."

"He would have found me eventually either way." I attempt to pull her into a hug, but she's stiff as a board. "Rey, please."

She relaxes and lets me pull her to my chest. "How can I make this easier?"

"Your being here makes it infinitely easier." It does. "Whenever you're around a sense of calm overtakes me."

"I won't let him take you."

"It would be a horrible day in which he challenges you."

"As long as I'm here, he won't harm you."

"Can you stay?" She freezes again. I know that it was presumptuous and implicit of things, but…I don't know if I can go back to sleep. "You don't have to."

"I'll stay, Rose won't let me forget it, but I'll stay." She attempts to gracefully climb over me to the other side of the bed, attempts being the key word. She's still tired, it's still two in the morning. Once she's under the covers and comfortable I interlock our fingers and stare at the ceiling.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." She's lying about a foot away from me, uncertain as to how this is going to work. "Come here."

She pulls me towards her so that my head is resting on her, just beneath her chin. Her arms wrap around my shoulder as mine goes to her waist. It's a little uncomfortable, and I try not to squish her, but sometimes you just need to be held. "What did I do to deserve you?"

"You've done plenty. You're kind, intelligent, selfless, brave, a hero, you're the strongest person I know. No one else could have resisted him the way you have for so long. I wouldn't have." She gently combs her fingers through my hair. "You're stronger than him, Ben. You're stronger than you realize."


	29. The Morning After

**AN:**

 **Hello. I do not own these characters.**

 **Guest (Chapter 28): Thanks! Our poor boy's been through some shit.**

 **Rey**

I wake up with something warm against my cheek and pressed against my front. A loud, blaring alarm sounds from the clock on the bedside table. I watch as Ben's hand reaches out to shut it off. "Good morning."

"Good morning." I yawn in his face, prompting a deep, rumbling laugh. "What the Hell am I going to tell Rose?"

I can't tell her the truth, she'd panic and freak out, and it's none of her business.

"I don't know." Ben combs his fingers through my tangled hair, thinking. "Tell her that you're at a point in your training where you can't control how much you're sensing and it becomes too much noise for you to sleep. That does happen sometimes."

"And that's going to explain me looking well rested and coming out of your room in the morning?"

"Tell her that I could help calm it. I don't know. Mental shields are one thing I'm pretty good at." Until last night.

"She'll still make presumptions."

"I don't know, it's early. When does she wake up?"

"Around 6:00."

"It's 5:30 right now. You could still sneak back in, and she'd be none the wiser."

"She woke up when I left. I told her that I had a nightmare and needed to go for a walk. She's a light sleeper."

"Or you could just let her make presumptions." Well, yes.

"Do you really want that?"

"It was two in the morning when you came here, a bit of an odd time to leave for a hookup." I guess.

"How'd you sleep?" I'll figure out something for Rose later.

"Better." He sighs. "No more nightmares."

"Good."

"And you?"

"I slept well."

"That's good. I don't want to move."

"Neither do I." I lean my cheek back on his bare chest. His right-hand rests on top of my left and his thumb runs across my knuckles. "But we have to."

"Yes, we do." He releases my hand and sits up. I do as well, but keep my head on his shoulder. It's kind of awkward when he grabs his datapad and is trying to situate it so that we can both look.

MESSAGE FROM GENERAL OF THE RESISTANCE, LEIA ORGANA SOLO:

I've canceled all of your meetings today. Sleep, take care of yourself, meditate, do whatever it is that you have to, Ben. I've taken care of Rey, too. Don't try to come in today, I'll send you back.

"Well, never mind." He places his datapad back on the bedside table.

"Good." I pull him back into a lying position.

"This isn't going to help your presumptuous roommate."

"I don't care." Yeah, I do, but not right now. "She can presume what she wants, she won't tell anyone that isn't Finn or Poe."

"Poe's going to be awful." He groans. "It'll be fine. He's been insufferable anyways."

"Who would have thought that our friends would be so very invested in us? They're absolutely terrible. Rose won't let a day go by without questions."

"Poe's demanded every bit of information he can out of me. How's Finn?" He turns his head to attempt to look me in the eyes.

"He's the only semi-calm one as far as I can tell."

"At least there's one."

"I guess." I kind of shrug.

"I need to meditate." He turns serious, seemingly remembering why I am here, to begin with. "If those mental shields are gone, then we're done for."

"Can I help?"

"Maybe you can." He sits up, forcing me to do so in the process. "Maybe together we'll be strong enough to keep him out. Get up."

"I can't go outside, Ben." I motion towards my sleep clothes.

"Then let me make the bed so we can sit comfortably." I help, so it doesn't take long for us to begin. We sit facing each other, legs crossed, knees touching. "I don't know how this is going to work, Rey. I don't know what you're going to see, what I'm going to see. I haven't done this with another person before. Last time, last time I did this, it was a painful process. I was useless for nearly a week. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I would feel it anyway, might as well make myself useful." He reaches out and gently cups my cheek in his hand. "He won't harm you as long as I'm here."

He leans over, pulling my face towards his and kissing me gently. "Thank you. I'll come get you."

He takes my hands, resting them on our knees. Our eyes shut, and I wait. Ben's presence envelops mine and I'm pulled into his head. His mind is a strange place, many areas closed off even from me.

 _Ben?_

 **I told you, I don't know what to do.**

 _Do what you did last time, just…I'll try to do whatever I can._

 **Okay.**

My brain feels like it's shaking.

 _Ben?_

 **This is okay. Just, concentrate on me.**

Is it? Is it okay?

I funnel my strength to him, but the shaking just gets worse and worse. It hurts. It really does, but we can't stop. I feel like I'm slipping out of his mind. I hold tight to him, I can't let him go. His hands are locked onto mine in a death-grip.

 _Ben?_

 **I'm fine, just a little while longer.**

 _Okay. I believe in you._

The shaking continues. I'm being drained of all energy. If it's this bad for me, how awful must it be for him?

 **I need a memory, something to latch onto, it's like a failsafe, I guess. If I start slipping, then the memory kicks in to keep me grounded. I've always used the memory of building my lightsaber.**

 _Are you going to change it?_

 **After last night I don't feel as though it's strong enough.**

 _So, what are you thinking you should do?_

 **Find a stronger memory.**

Ben's life starts flickering through my mind. Everything from his childhood to his teenage years to times as recent as last week. Then we go through again, just fewer memories as he filters them. I do notice that he keeps memories of me in.

Eventually, he stops on the first time we met.

 _You're sappy._

 **Sappy works, though.**

I watch through the memory from his point of view. It's odd, especially now that we've come so far from where we were. I can see his nostalgic filter over me. Though nothing's really changed, things slow down slightly when I take off my hood and goggles.

"Rey."

 **This works. It won't be long now, I put one memory pretty close to the top, so I can be stopped before it goes too far. There's several throughout the layers, but only one failed.**

The shaking starts again. I'm going to need to sleep for a long time after this.

Then he collapses. His hands release mine and he falls back on the bed. "Ben! Ben?"

I crawl up the bed and start checking him for vital signs. He's breathing. He's breathing. "I'm fine, Rey."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." He gasps.

"Did you finish?"

"Yes, I did." Thank goodness. "Come here."

I lay back in his arms like I was…I don't know how long that took. "What time is it?"

"8:45." He says, looking over at his clock.

"That took three hours? It felt like minutes."

"It felt like longer for me."

"You were the one actually doing things." I stroke his cheekbone with my thumb. "I see why you were useless for a week."

"I feel better this time, probably since we're sharing the burden."

"You were also more repairing the old walls than building them from scratch."

"That's also true." He sighs. "I'm going to have to continue to work on them for a while."

"I'll do whatever it is you need me to."

"Thank you." His eyelids start drooping.

"We're going to sleep all day, aren't we?" I certainly could.

"We probably need to get water and food and shower." Yeah. Oh kriff.

"I don't have any clothes." I wasn't planning on staying.

"I guess I could go grab you some from your room."

"You're exhausted." The real question here is: Do I trust Rose to trust me about what's happening? I would be lying, but…she doesn't need to know what actually happened. "I'll message Rose, she'll bring me some clothes."


	30. The Words

**AN:**

 **Poor Ben.**

 **I don't own these characters.**

 **Ben**

Rey's in the fresher when Rose shows up. "Next time you're planning on hooking up, don't have her sneak out at a ridiculous time and wake me up."

"That isn't what happened, but I'll keep that in mind." I take the stack of clothes.

"What happened?"

"Force shit."

"Force shit?"

"Force shit. She's at a sensitive point in her learning, she's sensing so much, but can't control it. I went through it, too. It's honestly one of the worst things you experience."

"How long will it last?"

"Depends on the person. It lasted nearly a month for me." That's not a lie.

"A month? You just didn't sleep for a month?"

"I slept, just not much." The noise from the fresher stops behind me.

"Were you able to help her?"

"Yes, I was."

"Is this going to become a common experience?"

"Hopefully not, I hope that she'll be able to sleep on her own."

"I just need to know whether or not I'm going to still have a roommate."

"You're not losing your roommate anytime soon, Tico."

"Whatever you say, General." She doesn't believe me.

"Thank you for the clothes." I step back and let the door slide closed between us. "Rey! Rose came by."

Wait.

How am I going to give these to her?

"Okay!" She calls back. She walks out of the fresher in nothing but a towel and takes the clothes from my hands. She then turns and walks back into the fresher, letting the door close behind her.

I haven't moved yet.

I was ill-prepared.

I was not ready.

I was not ready for her to do that.

It makes sense. She did not grow up in a civilized society, she also lived somewhere hot enough to literally boil your blood. Of course, she doesn't realize that walking around barely covered is not something that is normally done.

But that doesn't mean I was ready.

She walks back out of the fresher, noticing that my feet have not moved. "Well, I feel better."

"Good." My voice is stilted and awkward.

"You okay?"

"Yea, yeah, I just need to take a shower. I feel kind of gross." I grab the stack of clothes I had prepared for myself before speed walking past her into the fresher.

"I'm gonna go grab some food, I'll bring it back."

"Okay!"

-oOo-

It took me three days to fully recover from the wall building. In which time I had a roommate, Rey went and got a week's worth of her clothes and basically moved in with me. Rose is not going to let her forget this for a long time. However, today we went back to work, and Rey is back in her room. I would be lying if I said that it didn't sadden me even a little to have her not sleeping beside me anymore.

I slept better these four days than I've slept in months. I can admit that.

But tonight, I am once again alone. I lay on my back, staring at the ceiling.

 _Ben?_

 **Yes?**

 _You're not sleeping._

 **No.**

 _Why not?_

 **I don't know.**

 _You have to sleep, Ben._

 **I know.**

 _Sleep!_

 **How am I supposed to sleep with you yelling in my head?**

 _Ben. I am literally only awake because your brain is overworking itself and leaking into mine._

 **I can't help it sometimes.**

 _What can I do?_

 **I don't know.**

 _I'm coming._

 **No, Rey. I'm fine.**

 _Do you not want me to come?_

There's hurt in her thoughts. She's also exhausted.

 **It's not that.**

 _Then what is it, Ben? Why are you against me coming?_

Why am I? I…

 **We can't live together, Rey.**

 _Why not?_

 **This is not the time to have this conversation. We'll discuss it later.**

 _I'm still coming._

 **Rey!**

 _Ben!_

 **I'm fine, Rey.**

 _Well, it doesn't matter because I can't sleep anyways._

 **Rose isn't going to let you or me forget this. I promised her that I wasn't stealing her roommate.**

 _Rose'll deal with it. I think she's liked having her own room._

 **Rey…**

 _Look, Ben, if you really don't want me to come, just tell me._

 **I want you to…but I know that you shouldn't.**

 _No one has to know other than Rose._

 **Fine.**

It isn't long before she arrives holding a bag with a change of clothes and toiletries. I don't get out of the bed as she slips in beside me. "Hello."

"Hello." She throws one of her legs over mine and rests her cheek on my bare chest. "Why aren't you sleeping?"

"I don't know." Lie.

"You have to sleep, Ben. Humans have to sleep."

"I know."

"He isn't going to come back, Ben, not now. You've worked hard to build back those barriers; you won't have nightmares." She traces the scar she gave me from my forehead down to my jaw.

"I wish that I was as confident in my abilities as you are."

"You should be." She continues tracing the scar down my neck and shoulder.

"Apparently I am not as capable as I thought. You did manage to give me that after all."

"Don't blame yourself for this. It was mistakes on both of our parts that led to this." I've finally convinced her that it wasn't entirely her fault. "Besides, before that day when was the last time you had fought?"

"A good five years earlier."

"See, you were out of practice. I've never had the opportunity to stop fighting." Even now. "We should sleep. We have a lot of work to catch up on in the morning."

She curls up more into my side and rests her head on my chests once again. For several minutes we just lie there.

"What can I do to quiet your mind?"

"I feel like I'm just taking from you." I sigh. "You're always helping me."

"And you're teaching me. You've given me a home, steady source of food, friends, a family of sorts, I guess. And I love you."

We both tense.

I didn't mean to say that.


	31. The L-Word

**AN:**

 ***eyebrow wiggle* Getting somewhere, aren't we?**

 **I still don't own** ** _Star Wars_** **.**

 **Guest (Chapter 30): We shall see.**

 **Rey**

Well, now neither of our minds are quiet.

Good job, me.

AGH!

 **Rey?**

 _Yes?_

 **We'll talk about it tomorrow.**

 _Okay._

I…I don't know what I'm going to do.

 **I can put you to sleep if you would like.**

 _Why haven't you just done that to yourself?_

 **It's kind of hard to consciously make yourself go unconscious.**

 _Okay, please?_

His left-hand waves over my head and…

-oOo-

He's gone when I wake up. So much for talking about it.

A neatly folded piece of paper is on the other pillow.

 _Rey,_

 _I got a message around five this morning saying that there was an emergency meeting at 5:30. I didn't want to wake you. I promise that I'm not running away from our conversation, I just had to go to this meeting. If everything goes well, I will be back around nine. If everything does not go well, I'll tell you._ We can talk when I'm done.

Ben

Emergency? What happened?

 _Ben?_

 **I can't talk right now.**

 _Is something wrong?_

 **There may be. I'll tell you later, I promise.**

Well, this certainly isn't helping my wracked nerves. First last night, now something important enough for a 5:30 am emergency meeting happened? Kriff.

I gotta get up. I still have work.

-oOo-

"What happened?"

"We've located General Armitage Hux. He was the one in charge of Starkiller."

"He got off?" I figured that he would have died.

"It seems so."

"So, what's the plan?"

"We're worried that it's a trap. We feel as though it was too easy to figure out where he was. Some of the generals don't want to risk our men. Others are demanding that this is the time to act."

"What do you think?"

"I don't know. It felt too easy, but on the other hand, we've been searching for months."

"I'm assuming many more meetings are going to be happening soon."

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry."

"I agreed to do this, Rey. I was raised for stuff like this."

"What weren't you raised to be?"

"I honestly don't know." He laughs. "We have something else that we need to discuss."

"That we do."

"You love me." He stands tall, sounds as though we aren't having a conversation about emotions, but facts and figures. His mental walls are keeping even me out. "You admitted as much last night."

"That I did." My eyes blink slowly as I straighten my back.

"Did you mean it?"

"And if I did? What would that mean?"

"Probably not what it should." Oh no. "I'm sorry, Rey."

"There's nothing to be sorry for." It isn't your fault that I'm too frivolous with my emotions.

"I'm very careful, Rey. There's a reason that up until Jakku I had exactly one friend, and Poe was my friend when we were children who I was reunited with. Connections are a dangerous thing for a Jedi to have. While Uncle Luke does not believe in the code the way that he should, I was not exactly encouraged to become attached. I was twenty-three when the academy was destroyed. Since then I have been carefully guarding myself against anyone that Snoke could use against me. That is until I met you behind that sand dune on Jakku. I have allowed myself to do things that I never have before. I have allowed myself to not only emotionally become attached to you, but mentally. You are the weakness that I always feared. Please be patient with me."

"I've been starved of affection my entire life. On Jakku I was alone. I guess now I'm just so happy to have any that I've jumped ahead of myself."

"Don't, Rey. This isn't your fault. You can't control your feelings any more than I can."

"I guess we're both emotionally messed up people."

"I guess so." He looks down at his shoes, losing the composure he clung to.

"What do we do now?"

"I don't know. I don't want this to be ruined."

"I won't let it if you won't. My mind and emotions are made up, it depends on what you want."

"No pressure then." He smirks, but it falls quickly. "I'm sure that my feelings towards you will parallel your own soon enough. How could they not? You are a practically perfect being."

"Ben."

"Rey." He takes a few steps forwards and gently cups my cheek in his hand. "Please be patient with me."

"I promise." Our kiss is awkward, something that they've never really been. He's conflicted about so many things, his mind is barely with me. "You have more meetings, don't you?"

"Yes, they allowed me this recess because I demanded that we have to meditate."

"When do you have to go back?"

"9:30."

"Then I'll see you later." I take a step back, but he grabs my face again, passionately kissing me despite our awkwardness. He's trying to make it up to me.

"Sorry, wasn't exactly satisfied with the first one." He briefly kisses me again before releasing me. "I'll see you soon, I hope."


	32. The Dreams

**AN:**

 **Hello. We're doing a lot of deep conversations, aren't we?**

 **Rey**

"So, your mother knows."

"Yes, she does."

"I assume that she wants me to move in with you."

"We're short on rooms, the loss of an entire base has made many rooms triple up."

"So, it's a logical thing." Not an emotional.

"From the general's point of view, yes." He sighs. "From my mother's point of view, she seems to believe that it's good for us."

"What about from your point of view?" I step closer to him, taking his hand.

"After last night and this morning, I'm afraid that moving in together would put a strain on us." I try to drop his hand, but he holds tightly. "However, I don't seem capable of sleeping without you beside me."

"If you're trying to make it up to me, please don't. I don't want this because you feel guilty." I raise my hand to his cheek to force him to look me in the eye. "I don't want pity."

"I don't pity you."

"Then why?"

"Because I'm afraid. I'm afraid of what will happen if you're not there. I'm afraid that he'll come back, and I will fall. You're the only thing keeping me grounded." His Adam's apple bobs. "I don't know how this all happened so quickly. Maybe it was destiny, maybe it's our being so lonely for so long and finding someone like us. I would like to think that it's the former."

"When I was younger," I swallow, I've never told anyone about this, "I often had dreams of a strange boy with black hair. I never learned his name, but I did see his face. He was older than me by several years, which I could tell by his height alone. He was very sad every time I saw him. I often found him crying by himself, hidden from everyone except me. I watched the boy age and grow, until one day the dreams just stopped. I didn't really think anything of it, the dreams came at random times, there was no consistency to them.

"Like most dreams, my memories of them are very fleeting and vague. I barely remember anything about the boy. Until Maz's castle. It took a long time for me to realize why I recognized the boy, I never met you as a child after all, but I recognized the boy at the end of the hallway. A few weeks later I realized why, I had seen him, in a dream, in a nightmare."

"That was you…" Breathy words leave his lips, and clammy fingers wrap around my own. "You were the girl in my dreams. You were always there, whenever I was sad you were there. This certainly does give credit to the destiny theory."

"We have always been connected."

"It seems that the Forces of Destiny have certainly had their way with us."

 **Leia**

"Mistress Leia! Mistress Leia!" Threepio shuffles towards me.

"Yes."

"Artoo-Deeto has reactivated."

"What?" That droid's been functionless for years. Threepio shuffles to the side to reveal his shorter counterpart.

"He says that he has some much-needed good news regarding Master Luke."

"Dameron, go get my son." I order. "If I had to guess, he will be in his quarters."

"And Rey?"

"Yes, her too." Please, Artoo, please be what I think it is. Dameron practically runs over four different officers and three droids on his way out. "Artoo, how did you wake up? You've been in low power mode for nearly seven years."

The droid beeps at me in binary. "Artoo says that he is uncertain as to why he has woken at this time. He believes that it may have something to do with the Force and Master Luke's will."

"Maybe Luke is finally ready to be found. The bastard." Seven years. Seven years, and we may finally have him back.

"Mom? What's wrong?" Ben bursts into the command chambers with Poe and Rey in tow. "What happened? Artoo?"

Artoo beeps at Ben before turning to look at Rey and their joined hands, then beeping at Ben some more.

"She's my girlfriend, Artoo." The droid beeps excitedly. "What happened? Why are you awake? What do you have?"

Artoo rolls into the middle of the room and projects…the map. The rest of the map. Luke! BB8 rolls over to Poe, beeping at him. "Alright, buddy, I got it."

Poe takes the other piece of the map and inserts it into his droid. Slowly, the two droids combine their maps to make a completed trail to Luke. "Luke."

"We've found him." Ben smiles. "Sure took long enough."

 **Okay, I know this is kind of rushed, but I want to get this done before I see TLJ. So, this has nothing to do with this story, but I feel the need to share my theory as to why R2D2 wakes up when Rey arrived.**

 **So, the Force Bond is canon, which means that Ben Solo is now a part of Rey and is with her always. My theory is that Luke had everything set up so that when Ben Solo returned home, R2 would wake up and they could find him. However, thanks to the Force Bond things got confused so R2 woke up for Rey instead. This would also explain why Luke is so angry/confused when Rey shows up on Ahch-To. That was supposed to be newly redeemed Ben Solo, yet he is nowhere in sight.**


	33. The Legend

**AN:**

 **So, this is the final chapter. I'm thinking about editing this later, expanding on things and fixing some continuity errors. If you want me to do that, please tell me. I do not own** ** _Star Wars_** **, but I'm really fucking excited about it.**

 **So, I wrote this before the movie, but I just saw it a couple hours ago. I am still screaming internally. I won't rant here since a lot of you probably haven't seen it yet, but my goodness…I don't know how I'm going to wait two more years. And yeah, if I do edit this, I will be adding what we learned in TLJ. Specifically,** ** _that scene involving Luke and Ben_** **that I won't describe any further.**

 **Ben**

It takes about two weeks for us to prepare for the journey to Uncle Luke. We had to get a ship, supplies, plan our route to the planet as to avoid contact with the First Order. "Are you sure that you have everything?"

"Yes, Mom."

"Good, now, when you see your uncle, yell at him for me."

"I will." She can't go, the Resistance can't lose two generals at once if it can be avoided.

"Really loud, and for a really long time. You don't even have to yell words, just scream at him."

"I will."

"If your voice gets hoarse, Rey, you help him."

"I will, ma'am." Rey smiles next to me.

"Be careful, both of you." After Rey hugs nearly every person in the Resistance, we're finally ready to leave.

"You're going to be a kick-ass Jedi, Rey," Finn yells as we board the ship. "You too, Ben."

Thanks, Finn for remembering that I am also going to finish my training.

"What's your uncle actually like?" Rey buckles herself into the copilot's seat. "I don't think that I've ever actually asked."

"I don't know how he's going to be now. It's been six-seven years since he left. Who knows what he's been doing." Who knows if he even resembles my uncle at this point.

"Okay, so what was he like before?"

"Whiney."

"What?"

"He complains a lot. Apparently, he always has."

"Is there anything that I should know before we see him?"

"He's missing a hand."

"What?!"

"His hand, it got cut off by his father, at that point known as Darth Vader."

"What?!"

"I don't know, I didn't exist yet." And that wasn't really a story they wanted to tell me about.

-oOo-

Ahch-to.

Really?

This is where he's been hiding for seven years?

What has he been eating?

Are there other inhabitants?

What has he been doing?

Uncle Luke gets bored and distracted rather easily.

"Where is he?"

"This way." Yet another Force presence I know insanely well.

"I assume that you're going to do as your mother requested."

"When don't I?" I take her hand and lead her up the winding steps. Whatever he's been doing, Uncle Luke must be in great shape considering the number of stairs on this island.

We pass stone huts, cliffsides, more water than Rey has ever seen in her life.

There he is.

Luke Skywalker overlooking a cliff, slowly turns to us, utterly confused. Rey clips the lightsaber off her belt and slowly reaches out to him, returning the blade to its former owner.

"Mom asked me to tell you that you're a fucking bastard."


End file.
